TN to strongly fight for release of 14,000 cusecs of Cauvery water

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu government will strongly fight for the release of 14,000 cusecs of Cauvery river water by Karnataka to the state, Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan said on Friday amidst the travails of farmers in the delta districts in saving standing paddy crops.

Farmers dependent only on the water from the Mettur dam have taken up Kuruvai crop (short-term) cultivation in the delta districts and in certain pockets in Thanjavur district, anticipating steady discharge of Cauvery water from neighbouring Karnataka have taken up the Samba (long-duration) paddy crop.

However, their hopes of realising a good yield appears bleak owing to the water level in the Mettur reservoir nearing dead storage.

Besides agriculture, water from the dam caters to the drinking water requirement in the districts.

Tamil Nadu will present its case at Friday’s meeting of the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) and strongly contend for the release of 14,000 cusecs of water to save the standing crops in the delta districts, Duraimurugan told reporters here.

On Wednesday the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee ordered Karnataka to release 3,000 cusecs water to Tamil Nadu from October 16 to 31, he said.

To a question, the Minister ruled out the scope of releasing water from Mettur dam. "There is hardly 10 TMC water in the reservoir. So, we can't release water. Though the catchment areas are receiving rain we have to wait and see if the situation would improve," he added.

The sudden rain in the catchment areas of Thoppaiyaru and Palar triggered a meager rise in the Mettur dam water level. Though the inflows increased to 18,974 cusecs on Thursday evening from 2,528 cusecs on the previous day, the inflows however, decreased to about 12,606 cusecs today, a Public Works Department official said.

According to the secretary of Federation of Tamil Nadu All Farmers Association C Nallasamy, the water level in the dam decreased to 32 feet for the first time in the last seven years due to the failure of the southwest monsoon.

He claimed that if the current situation continued there would be a crisis not only for agriculture but also drinking water in the districts dependent on Cauvery.