Southern districts fare better in storage of tanks

Two southern districts — Madurai and Kanniyakumari — account for 50% of the irrigation tanks in the State that have reached their capacity.

As many as 1,222 tanks across the State were full, as on October 21. Of them, 302 and 310 tanks were in Madurai and Kanniyakumari, respectively. This could be attributed to the amount of rainfall received by the two districts in the past couple of months. During the southwest monsoon (June-September), Madurai and Kanniyakumari recorded 31 cm and 50 cm, respectively, as against the anticipated figures of 30 cm and 49 cm. Since October 1, the two districts have received 22 cm and 11 cm, respectively, as against the normal share of 11 cm and 16 cm.

This time, the northeast monsoon set in on October 15 — almost a week ahead of the conventional date (October 20).

However, the number of tanks that were full constituted about 8% of the total number of tanks — 14,139. Kanniyakumari, which has the largest number of tanks, at 2,040, is better placed than Sivaganga (1,459), as the storage at 75% of its tanks ranges from 50% to 100%. In the case of the other southern district, it is only 40%.

In fact, these three districts have increased the southern region’s tally to such an extent that the share of the region varies from 58% to 66% vis-à-vis other regions in respect of relatively higher storage (from 51% to 100%).

In the rest of the southern region, the storage at a majority of the tanks is not even half-full. The other three regions — north, central and west — are awaiting spells of heavy rain during the current monsoon, in view of a large number of their tanks having less than 50% storage. In the north, the number of such tanks is 2,878 out of a total of 3,837; in the central region, 1,260 out of 2,171; and in the west, 290 out of 435.

Meanwhile, a perusal of the data on the storage at dams and reservoirs, including those supplying water to Chennai, reveals that the existing storage is around 63% of the combined capacity. Of about 224 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft), the total storage is nearly 142 tmcft. Reservoirs in the Cauvery system — Mettur, Bhavanisagar and Amaravati — account for the lion’s share of around 86 tmcft.