Nine gates of TN dam washed away
CHENNAI: With nine out of 45 sluice gates of the Upper Anaicut (called Mukkombu Dam) in Trichy washed away along with their piers on Wednesday, farmers in Tamil Nadu are a worried lot.
The Mukkombu Dam is the regulator that splits the water coming from Mettur into the Kollidam and Cauvery rivers. The washing away of the sluice gates means that more water is draining into the Kollidam river, leading to a possible flood threat in its downstream areas. The Tamil Nadu disaster management authority has, however, said that there is no need to panic.
Mukkombu was built by the British in 1836-38 and farmers are alleging that poor maintenance has led to the disaster.
With a large quantity of water draining into the Kollidam instead of the more important Cauvery river, Tamil Nadu farmers are worried about the samba crop cultivation for this season. This is because the Cauvery irrigates around 80% of agriculture land in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Pudukkottai districts with more water draining into the Kollidam, the tail-end areas of the Cauvery may not get any water at all.
Since July, the water outflow from Mettur Dam in Tamil Nadu has been high because Karnataka has opened its Kabini and KRS dams due to heavy rain.
Due to heavy rainfall in the Cauvery water catchment areas, about 200,000 cusecs of water was released from Mettur last week. Though Karnataka has now reduced the outflow to 58,214 cusecs of water per day, the TN water resources department is releasing about 50,000 cusecs from Mettur to Upper Anaicut (Mukkombu dam), which is about 15 Kms west to Trichy.
Though the Kollidam flows for 160 kms from Mukkombu and can carry 450,000 cusecs of water, it is not very useful for cultivation, complain farmers. It is the Cauvery which helps in cultivating more than 800,000 acres of land in Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam and Pudukkottai districts. Farmers allege that more water in Kollidam is only likely to drain into the sea and the situation would pose a threat to samba crop cultivation.
“Already there are about 50 TMC (thousand million Cubic feet )of water draining into the Bay of Bengal through Kollidam. With this damage to Mokkombu, more water will drain into the sea. The government has erred in not ensuring upkeep of these sluice gates,” said Elankeeran Veeramani, president, Cauvery delta irrigation association.
Meanwhile, PR Pandiyan, president, Tamil Nadu all farmers organising committee, said farmers may face another drought year in downstream districts of the Cauvery despite good water storage in Mettur. “Already, water has not come into the tail-end parts of delta district. So, many farmers who have sown seeds are waiting for Cauvery water. At this juncture, the damage in Upper Anaicut would further worsen the situation,” he said.
Public works department’s principal secretary SK Prabhakar visited the dam on Thursday and assured that they will address the issue on a war footing. “Since water flow is low in Kollidam and Cauvery, there is no need to panic about a flood in Kollidam,” he said.
MK Stalin, working president of the DMK, said that the government had failed to maintain the Upper Anaicut. “The ruling AIADMK government should take full responsibility for this. It should have ensured that Upper Anaicut is safe,” Stalin said. Meanwhile, chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, who holds the PWD portfolio, is likely to visit Upper Anaicut on Friday to assess the damage.