Chennai: Cauvery delta districts may have water for irrigating paddy crops of the samba season for another 10 days at best, due to a sharp fall in the storage of Mettur dam, say govt officials. The situation has triggered another round of concern among farmers.According to water resources department officials, Mettur dam had 34.046tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of water as of Monday evening, with the level at 71.5ft. Officials said water could be released for irrigation for the delta region only until the storage drops to 20tmcft.“We are releasing 15,000 cusecs for irrigation and drinking water needs. If the rate of depletion continues and there is no rain in the catchment area of Cauvery, we will not be able to release water for samba cultivation from Oct 14,” the official said.Once the storage falls to 20tmcft, the outflow will be reduced to 1,200-1,500 cusecs to meet drinking water needs. The supply will be maintained for Veeranam, while the supply for Grand Anaicut would dry up, officials said. This would deprive farmers in delta districts who have raised paddy of water.“Poor rainfall and the shortfall in releasing the stipulated share of Cauvery water by Karnataka have contributed to the decline in storage,” said a senior WRD official. Despite Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) directing Karnataka to release the stipulated quantity of water on a pro rata basis, it did not adhere to the direction nor comply with the Supreme Court order, the officer said.In the 58th meeting held on Sept 24, CWMA instructed Karnataka to release 4,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu for 15 days. But what Tamil Nadu was receiving at Biligundulu was less than 2,000 cusecs for the past several days and further dropped to 1,424 cusecs at 4pm on Monday, said officials.“Since the beginning of the water year in June, up to Oct 1, Karnataka should have released 123.7tmcft of water to Tamil Nadu. But it has released only 44.4tmcft, leaving a deficit of 79.3tmcft,” said the official.The situation has renewed concerns among farmers, who have urged Tamil Nadu govt to get Karnataka to release the water.“The flow of Cauvery water in the river is not sufficient. Water has not reached the A channels completely on either side of the riverbanks in the delta region. Several B, C and D channels, as well as smaller branch channels, are yet to receive water, leaving farmers uncertain about raising their crops. If this is the situation now, it will become even more critical for farmers if we do not receive water from Mettur after October 14,” said Swamimalai S Vimalnathan, secretary of the TN Cauvery Farmers’ Protection Association.He said officials appeared to be under the impression that the entire delta had received water once it reached the tail-end areas. “That is far from the ground reality,” he said.“Direct sowing is also not suitable in all areas. We need sufficient water during the third week of October to transplant the saplings from nurseries to the fields. If we do not receive adequate water, the saplings will wither and farmers will suffer severe losses,” he said.
