Chennai, July 10 (BPNS)

The southwest monsoon has increased the water level in  Siruvani dam located on the Tamil Nadu border in Kerala bringing cheers to Coimbatore as most of the city’s water requirement is met by the water from the dam.

It is to be noted that of the 265 MLD water required for Coimbatore city daily, 101.40 MLD is drawn from Siruvani dam.

A senior official of Tamil Nadu water department while speaking to IANS said, “ The full reservoir level (FRL) of Siruvani dam is 50 ft and on July 1 it was 14.2 ft but on Saturday it has touched 23.1 ft in nine days. This is mainly due to the heavy southwest monsoon rains in Kerala.”

The official also said that in the next few days if rains continued in Kerala, the catchment areas will receive about 60mm of rains and would fill around 75 percent of the dam.

The increase in storage level in Siruvani dam has led to the increase in water intake to Coimbatore city. The official said that while 95 MLD was drawn last week to cater to the water requirement of Coimbatore the supply increased to 100.9 MLD on Saturday.

It is to be noted that the Kerala irrigation department was maintaining  the water level of the dam at 877.00 m instead of 878. 50 m as stipulated in the interstate agreement with Tamil Nadu. Lowering the water level by 1.5 m leads to shortage of supply to Coimbatore and the matter was taken up by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin with his Kerala counterpart, Pinarayi Vijayan. This led to the Kerala irrigation department raising the water at Siruvani dam at Full Reservoir Level..

With the Meteorological department predicting continued rains in Kerala for the next few days, there will be rise in water level at the Siruvani dam leading to more supply of water to Coimbatore city.