COIMBATORE: Following incessant rain in catchment areas of Siruvani dam in Kerala in the past few days, the storage has increased substantially and crossed the 10 feet mark against the full capacity of 50 feet. The Siruvani dam in Palakkad district in Kerala is one of the main sources of drinking water for Coimbatore city. The Kerala government allows to store up to 45 feet in the dam. Due to lack of rain during last monsoon, the storage dropped to 0.5 feet last month. Eventually, the amount of water released from the dam for drinking also decreased. As a result, drinking water was supplied only once in 20 days to several areas of the city.
The southwest monsoon usually brings rain in early June in the catchment areas of Siruvani. But this year, it didn’t receive much rains in June and heavy rainfall was recorded in the water catchment areas of the dam from July 4. A maximum of 122 mm of rainfall was recorded during the night of July 5.It was followed by 112 mm of rainfall on the night of July 6 and 62 mm on July 7. As a result, the water level of the dam rose to 10 feet. Around 27 mm of rainfall had been recorded in the last week.
Officials from TWAD (Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage) Board said the water level of the dam stood at 10.27 feet as of Sunday and around 55 MLD of water is being supplied from the reservoir, of which 52 MLD of water is distributed to Coimbatore corporation areas and the remaining is distributed to villages along the route.