Heavy Rain Pillor Dam Full
A full Pilloor Dam (left) and water overflowing from it (right) on Tuesday. The city’s saviour on the drinking water front – Pilloor Dam – is filled to capacity. The water level touched the full reservoir level of 100 ft late on Sunday night and was is now overflowing into River Bhavani.Heavy rain in the Nilgiris and the Pilloor catchments is bringing substantial inflow through River Bhavani. After filling the dam, the river takes away the surplus and joins River Cauvery at Kodumudi in Erode District. Corporation officials said on Monday that an overflow at the dam meant much for drinking water supply in the city and the eastern suburbs.
Mettupalayam Tahsildar K. Damodaran said: “The dam is said to getting an inflow of 12,000 cusecs. This is the amount being released into the river. So, we have asked people living in the low-lying areas along the river in Mettupalayam to shift to safer places.” Mayor R. Venkatachalam said the overflow was very good news for the city, especially when there was an anxious wait for things to improve at the Siruvani Dam that supplied water under another scheme. The Pilloor drinking water scheme had always played saviour for the city, when crisis hit the Siruvani scheme.
Assistant Engineer K. Karuppusamy, who is in charge of Pilloor supply in the city, said the eastern parts of the city might be able to get their full quota of 65 million litres a day if the overflow continued. The scheme supplied another 60 million litres to 22 town panchayats and 536 village panchayats. As for the city, the scheme provided drinking water to 29 of the 72 wards. The Corporation said the removal of silt from Pilloor Dam recently by the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board would enable the dam to hold water almost to its capacity – 1,568 million cubic feet.
According to the civic body, a lot of development in the city depended on how much water the Pilloor Dam could supply. The Corporation itself had embarked on implementing the Pilloor Phase II scheme to supply 125 million litres a day because of the scheme’s source – the Bhavani – being a perennial river. Real estate or information technology parks, River Bhavani and Pilloor schemes held the key to development in these areas. The Corporation said the Siruvani scheme was vital for the city, but not as dependable as Pilloor. Mr. Damodaran said there was forecast of heavy rain in Upper Bhavani. This meant more water would be let into the river from the dam.
Police and revenue officials were warning people of a spate in the river in the Mettupalayam region. “People in Odanthurai, Sirumugai and Nellithurai villages are familiar with the increased discharge of water from the dam. They shift to safer places during monsoon”, he said.Habitations along the river were not alien to substantial amount of water being let into the river.They knew when to cross the river and when not to. This was because the discharge was done every 36 hours because of power generation at the dam. Only extra caution was exercised in the event of an overflow during monsoon.
