Siruvani dam  

In the wake of Kerala restricting water from Siruvani dam, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Monday wrote to his Kerala counterpart requesting him to direct officials to maintain the storage of the Siruvani dam up to its full reservoir level (FRL) i.e. 878.50 m, so as to provide uninterrupted water supply to the Coimbatore Corporation and other beneficiaries of the project.

Increase water supply

In the letter, he also requested the Kerala Chief Minister to direct officials to increase the water supply from the Siruvani dam to enable supply of 101.40 MLD (megaliters per day).

“If storage of water to its full capacity is not maintained, the Coimbatore Corporation and adjoining areas, depending on Siruvani water, will be affected severely during the ensuing summer,” a copy of the letter shared with the media read.

Since January 3, the Kerala Irrigation Department has controlled the intake tower, and it was informed it cannot regulate the flow until further orders from the Kerala Government, Mr. Stalin said. Siruvani dam is a prime source of water supply to Coimbatore city. Of the current total water requirement of 265 MLD for Coimbatore Corporation, 101.4 MLD was to be supplied from Siruvani dam.

In spite of adequate rainfall in the Siruvani catchment area, Kerala was maintaining the storage level in Siruvani Dam at 877.0m only instead of the FRL of 878.50m for the past three years.

Regular meetings were being held by the officials of the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board with the Kerala Irrigation Department officials to store water up to the FRL, and the Tamil Nadu Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department had taken up this issue with Kerala’s Water Resources Department.

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