Keeping its commitment given to the Supreme Court on Tuesday, Karnataka has released 10,000 cusecs of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu. The water was expected to reach the Mettur Dam by Wednesday midnight.
But, the release was not being viewed as significant by farmers as — as per Mettur’s inflow watch— above 8,000 cusecs was already being received at the dam over the past six days. Before that, above 5,000 cusecs was received for about a week. With the SW monsoon picking up, the inflow into Krishnarajasagar and Kabini Dams was on a steady rise and Karnataka had been discharging surplus water over the last fortnight.
As usual, the inflows into Mettur this year too increased only whenever the Kabini reached its capacity. Farmers viewed Karnataka’s commitment before the SC, to release 10,000 cusecs in response to TN’s plea for 2 tmcft release till the CRA meet on September 19, as a smart move of gaining goodwill by discharging its usual surplus while not committing itself to distress sharing as per the Cauvery Tribunal’s final award.
The dam received only 17.02 tmcft from June 1 till date as against the Tribunal award of 119.567 tmcft. The shortfall as on date is 102.5 tmcft. On Wednesday afternoon, the dam received 9,225 cusecs. The level rose to 81.09 ft and storage was 43.057 tmcft as against capacity of 93.5 tmcft. Officials will monitor inflows at the gauging station in Biligundulu, where Cauvery enters TN. This will go on till the CRA meet, said PWD sources.
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