ERODE: Water which was released for irrigation from the Lower Bhavani Dam (Bhavanisagar dam) reached the tail-end area of Lower Bhavani Project (LBP) canal on Sunday night. Farmers celebrated the arrival of water by offering prayers on Monday.
Water was released from the dam on August 15, but was stopped in an hour as renovation work in the canal did not get over in many places. Water was released again on August 19 at 11 am. Initially 200 cusecs of water was released which has gradually increased to 2,200 cusecs. Water flowed into the tail-end Mangalapatti in Karur district at 7 pm on Sunday.
According to farmers, water reached the tail-end late by around 32 hours. Last year, it reached in 144 hours. Officials from the Water Resources Department (WRD) said, “With the canal modernisation works, we feel water has reached the tail-end a bit quicker this year.
Since work was on at many places, only 200 cusecs of water was released on August 19. But last year, initially 500 cusecs of water was released. Also, the branch canals were opened before the water flowed to the tail-end this year unlike the previous year.”
P Balasubramaniyam, a farmer in the tail-end area, said “Our lands were drying up due to inadequate rains and wells have dried up. Due to this, coconut trees started to wither. In this situation, water has flowed into our area. We are confident that the crops would be saved.
Also, we will start work to cultivate paddy. We are grateful to Chief Minister MK Stalin and Minister S Muthuswamy for helping us saving the crops.” According to sources, the LBP canal irrigates over two lakh acres of farmland. In the first phase, water has been opened to benefit 1.35 lakh acres.