PUDUCHERRY: Puducherry government has sought the relocation of Cauvery gauging stations to areas adjoining the Karaikal region of the UT, which are now located five to 20 kilometres away from the Karaikal border in Tamil Nadu.
The matter was discussed and deliberated in a meeting chaired by PWD Minister K Lakshminarayanan with the chairman of the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) Saumitra Kumar Haldar along with PWD officials of Tamilnadu and Puducherry at Puducherry on Monday.
Karaikal region of the UT is situated at the tail end of the Cauvery delta having an ayacut of 27,12 acres.
There are seven tributaries of Cauvery which take off in Tamil Nadu and finally confluence in the Bay of Bengal in Karaikal. These seven namely Nandalar, Nattar, Vanjiyar, Noolar, Arasalar, Thirumalairajanar and Puravadaiyanar with a combined length of 82.015 kilometres in Karaikal contribute to the flow of the area.
All the tributaries in the region are non-perennial and flow is mainly due to the Cauvery release from June to January. No considerable flow occurs due to South West monsoon. For most of the months in the year, the flows available are the releases/regulated flows from upper regulators maintained by Tamil Nadu. Central Water Commission has set up hydrological observation stations on all these distributaries and gauge and discharge observations are being taken regularly.
However, the gauging cum discharge observation stations are located five to 20 kilometres from Karaikal, expect two rivers Nandalar and Nattar, PWD Minister Lakshminarayanan told The New Indian Express. Hence when water released for the Karaikal area is calculated at the gauging station, the water is also used by intermittent areas in Tamilnadu before it reaches Karaikal farmers, said Lakshminarayanan.
"Therefore, to ensure that Puducherry gets its proportionate share of water for all months, the government wants the gauging stations on the border at the entry point of the rivers to Karaikal," said Lakshminarayanan.
The CWMA Chairman Haldar, in the meeting, has asked the Puducherry government to provide land for establishing the gauging station along with a building for the personnel of the station, said the minister. The Chairman will be going for a site inspection to Karaikal on Tuesday to examine the feasibility of establishing the gauging stations.
Though up to 2018-19, there was a shortfall of Cauvery water to Karaikal, since 2019-2020, Karaikal region has been receiving more than its share of 7tmc, according to government data.
Secretary PWD L Kumar, Chief Engineer PWD V Sathya Murthy, Chief Engineer, Tamil Nadu Public Works Department Ramamurthy and other officials participated in the meeting.