MAYILADUTHURAI: Scores of devotees who converged at the pushkaram-fame Kaveri Thula Kattam here as part of the commencement of the 30-day Thula Utsavam on Wednesday bathed in the ghat even when it was bereft of running Cauvery water, courtesy the municipality.
With a shortage of Cauvery water even for irrigation and groundwater recharge this time, Mayiladuthurai municipality filled the river ghat with water pumped from borewells to facilitate the devotees to shower and perform rituals.
Every year during the Tamil month of Aippasi, devotees throng the ghat steps in the heart of the town to take a dip in the Cauvery in the belief that their sins will be washed away in the river water. Kaveri Thula Kattam also hosts the Kaveri Pushkaram -- a festival held every 144 years, its last being in 2017.
While thousands of devotees then too had to deal with low flow of Cauvery water, this year, owing to reduced release from Mettur dam for aiding irrigation in the delta region, the river water hardly was at knee level at the ghat.
"We could not direct water to the Thuia Kattam for the Thula Utsavam as Cauvery water is insufficient for irrigation and groundwater recharge," said a senior official from the Water Resources Department (WRD). According to the WRD, the outflow from Mettur dam until Wednesday was around 500 cusecs.
The inflow stood at 6,281 cusecs. The dam storage level is around 42 feet. At the Grand Anaicut (Kallanai), the release is 1,304 cusecs while the release into the Vennaru and Grand Anaicut Canal is nil. The release into the Kollidam stood at 1,804 cusecs from Upper Anaicut (Mukkombu).
Hence coming to the aid of devotees worrying about the possibility of bathing in the ghat this year, Mayiladuthurai municipality filled it up by tapping into borewells. "We are pumping groundwater from the borewells and passing it in pipelines so that devotees can shower. The devotees can also make use of the wells to bathe," said Municipality Commissioner A Sankar. The Thula Utsavam is set to conclude on November 16.