Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay on Tuesday, September 1, opened the sluice gates of the Stanley Reservoir at Mettur Dam, releasing Cauvery water for irrigation in the state's delta districts. The release began at 11:40 am and is expected to continue for 45 days, depending on the reservoir's storage and inflows.
The release, usually scheduled for June 12, was delayed by around 80 days this year due to poor southwest monsoon rainfall in the Cauvery basin and low inflows into the reservoir.
The water release is expected to provide much-needed support to farmers preparing for Samba paddy cultivation, according to The Times of India.
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At the time of the release, the reservoir water level stood at around 90.92 feet, with storage exceeding 53 thousand million cubic feet (TMC), against its full reservoir level of 120 feet and capacity of 93.47 TMC.
The water release is expected to benefit irrigation across around 16.05 lakh acres in 12 districts of the Cauvery delta, including Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Tiruchirappalli, Salem, Namakkal and Erode. The Cauvery remains the primary water source for large-scale agricultural activity in the region.
The opening also comes amid an ongoing water-sharing dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Tamil Nadu has approached the Supreme Court seeking directions for Karnataka to address an accumulated shortfall in Cauvery water releases. The court is scheduled to hear the matter again on September 15.
Karnataka has maintained that it has been releasing water in accordance with, and at times above, stipulated levels. It reported releasing 9,888 cusecs on August 30 against a prescribed 9,000 cusecs, followed by more than 11,000 cusecs the next day. Discharges at Billigundulu subsequently rose to over 11,000-12,000 cusecs following directions from the Cauvery Water Management Authority, according to media reports.
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The Mettur release is therefore expected to provide relief to delta farmers while the inter-state water dispute and reservoir conditions remain closely monitored.
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