Dams in Western region fill up fast due to copious inflow

Most of the dams hold comfortable capacity, with Mettur dam, which serves as a source of drinking water for 12 districts, surging fast due to unprecedented inflows. The storage level in Mettur dam has risen by 10 feet within a day – from 62.50 feet on Saturday to 72.50 feet on Sunday.

“The storage in Mettur now stands at 72.50 feet as against its full reservoir level of 120 feet at 8 am on Sunday. From 93,000 cusecs in morning, the inflow surged to 1.15 lakh cusecs at 5 pm. As inflow is likely to go up further, the dam may reach its full reservoir level (FRL) soon,” said a PWD official.

On July 23, 2018, the dam had reached FRL of 120 feet for the first time in four years. And exactly a year ago, the dam had reached its brim again for the second time due to heavy inflow following good rains in the catchment areas of Cauvery.

With an inflow standing at 1,15,000 cusecs, about 1,000 cusecs was released for drinking water purposes. Similarly, the water level in Bhavani Sagar dam has reached storage of 90.68 feet as against its full reservoir capacity of 105 feet, and realises a good inflow of 7,727 cusecs as on Sunday 4 pm. The Pillur dam, too, is overflowing continuously for the past few days with Bhavani river in spate.

The Sholayar dam, too, has almost reached its brim at 159.12 feet as against the full reservoir level of 160 feet. The surplus water from Sholayar reaches Parambikulam reservoir, improving its storage. The dam, the second deepest in Asia, is receiving 7,172 cusecs and is letting out 983.65 cusecs. Similarly, the Aliyar dam had storage of 82.10 feet as against the full storage level of 120 feet, while the Amaravathy dam had storage of 73.76 feet as against its full capacity of 90 feet. The Siruvani dam, which caters to the drinking water requirements of people in Coimbatore district, is also in a comfortable position. As on August 8, when the level was recorded last, it had 42 feet of water against its full reservoir capacity of 50 feet.

With all the dams witnessing a good inflow due to continuing rains, officials said they would get filled up to full capacity in just a few more days.