COIMBATORE: Water level in the Siruvani dam in Kerala is rising steadily, thanks to heavy rain in the catchment areas. Coimbatore depends on Siruvani waters to quench its thirst. Of Coimbatore city's daily requirement of 265 MLD, 101.40 MLD is drawn from the dam.
An official in Siruvani division of Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage (TWAD) told The New Indian Express, "The water level was 14.2 ft against the Full Reser voir Level of 50 feet on July 1. It increased to 22.24 ft on Friday, a rise of eight feet in a week, thanks largely to South West monsoon."
Sources said the catch ment areas received about 60 mm of rainfall and the dam will reach about 75 per cent of the storage level in the next few weeks.While 95 MLD was drawn last week to cater to the drinking water needs of Coimbatore, the supply has increased to 100.9 MLD on Friday, added the sources.
Kerala irrigation department was maintaining the maximum water level at 877.00m instead of 878.50m as stipulated in the interstate agreement. Lowering the water level by 1.5m results in a short age of 122.05 MCFT of water, which is 19 per cent of the total storage.
This created difficulties in Coimbatore city during sum mer. CM Stalin wrote to his Kerala counterpart requesting him to direct the officials to re lease the full quota of water. Based on this, Kerala released 101.4 MLD on June 20