Flood warning has been issued to at least 10 villages on Thursday, after around 750 cusecs of water from Shenbagathoppu dam near Polur in Tiruvannamalai was released following continuous inflow from upstream.
Officials of Water Resources Department (WRD), which maintains the facility, said that excess water from the dam helps farmers irrigate 8,350.40 acres of paddy fields in the region. During monsoon, especially in December, water should be stored up to 58 feet in the dam as against its total storage capacity of 62 feet. “Earlier, we released around 2,100 cusecs of water from the dam. Now, the discharge has been reduced to around 750 cusecs as rain has stopped in the catchment areas,” A. Raja Ganapathy, Assistant Engineer (AE), WRD, told The Hindu.
Water will be released till May 11 for irrigation. Accompanied by S. Balasubramaniam, Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO), Arani, Collector D. Bhaskara Pandian opened the sluice gates of the dam, located a few kilometres away from the reservoir downstream.
Water from Shenbagathoppu dam, which has a storage capacity of 287 mcft, caters to the needs of at least 200 villages upto Arani town. Kamandalam river from Jawadhu Hills remains its main water source before Naganathi river from Amriti forests in Vellore joins the river at Kunnathur village near Arani.
At present, the excess water from the dam is discharged into 48 tanks — Polur (18), Arani (12), Arcot (9), Cheyyar (8), and Vandavasi (1) — through four check dams in the district, including Alliyabhad and Karnakur check dams, thereby recharging the groundwater in and around these villages.
Of the four dams used for irrigation in the district, including Santhanur and Kuppanatham, Shenbagathoppu was built in 2007, WRD officials said.
Published – December 05, 2024 11:34 pm IST
