Chennai, Feb 1 (Agency) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin today sought the intervention of his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan to maintain the storage in Siruvani dam to its full level of 878.50 m to ensure uninterrupted supply of water to Coimbatore Corporation and other beneficiaries. In a Demi-Official letter to Mr Vijayan, he said despite repeated requests, the Kerala Irrigation Department has not taken any steps to maintain the storage level of Siruvani dam up to its FRL of 878.50 m. Mr Stalin said If storage of water to its full capacity is not maintained, the Coimbatore Corporation and its adjoining areas, depending on Siruvani water, would be affected severely during the ensuing summer. He also requested him to direct the concerned officials to increase the water supply from the dam to enable supply of 101.40 MLD.
He said for the past three years inspite of adequate rainfall in the Siruvani catchment, the Kerala irrigation department is maintaining the storage level in Siruvani Dam at 877.0 m instead of Full Reservoir Level (FRL) of 878.50m. Due to lowering of water level by 1.50m, only 528 mcft of water could be stored against the capacity of 650 mcft resulting in a storage loss of 122 mcft (19 per cent of total storage), he said. Consequently only about 85 MLD of water could be supplied from the scheme as against 101.40 MLD, Mr Stalin pointed out. Regular meetings are being conducted by the officials of Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board with Kerala irrigation department officials to store water upto FRL. The Tamil Nadu Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department has also addressed the Additional Chief Secretary, Kerala Water Resources Department, he said, adding, despite repeated requests, the Kerala Irrigation Department has not taken any steps to maintain the storage level to FRL. He said the Kerala Irrigation Department has controlled the IV valve of Intake Tower from January three.
It has also been informed by the Kerala Irrigation Department that they could not regulate the flow of Intake Tower IV valve until further orders from Kerala Government, he said and sought the interv ention of Mr Vijayan in maintaining the storage to FRL. Stating that Siruvani dam is a prime source of water supply to Coimbatore city, he sai of the total water requirement of 265 MLD for Coimbatore Corporation, 101.4 MLD is to be supplied from the scheme with Siruvani dam as source. The Agreement for this project was entered into between the two governments on August 19, 1973 for the supply of water not exceeding 1.30 TMC annually (1st July to 30th June) to the erstwhile Coimbatore Municipal Town for drinking water purpose for a period of 99 years. Though, the agreement provides for supply of water upto 1.30 TMC, the actual supply is far less than that. Over past six years the State has received water ranging from 0.484 TMC to 1.128 TMC only. Mr Stalin said 0.964 tmc of water was received in 2015-16. 0.484 tmc in 2016-1, 0.803 tmc in 2017-18, 1.040 tmc in 2018-19, 1.090 tmc in 2019-20 and 1.128 tmc in 2020-21.