NAGAPATTINAM: Cauvery River water released from Mettur dam reached the district through the multiple distributaries of Vennaru, on Thursday. The water distribution for irrigating kuruvai paddy cultivation commenced the same day.
Farmers welcomed the water flow in the district with traditional song and dance. "We have received the river water via four distributaries and will receive it through another three in a day. After they reach the tail-end regulators, we release the water for channel distribution and field irrigation," an official from WRD's Vennaru division said.
According to the WRD, the Vennaru’s distributaries such as River Vettar, River Odambodi, River Kavduvaiyar and River Pandavai carried Cauvery water to the district on Thursday. The river water through the Vellaiyar, Adappar and Harichandra are expected to reach the district on Friday. According to the WRD, the inflow at Mettur dam as on Thursday is 383 cusecs while the outflow is maintained at around 10,000 cusecs. The storage level is at 96.7 feet as against the full reservoir level of 120 feet.
At the Grand Anicut (Kallanai), the outflow of Cauvery water is 2,856 cusecs. A total of 2,857 cusecs of the river water is being released into the Vennaru while 1,214 cusecs is being released into Grand Anicut Canal (GAC). Nagapattinam benefits from both the Vennaru and the Cauvery. The WRD has this year desilted A and B channels running to a length of 301.1 km in the district at a total cost of Rs 3.97 crore while the agricultural engineering department has desilted 258 km of C and D channels at a cost of Rs 97.6 lakh.