The Siruvani Dam awaits a good inflow during the North-East Monsoon. After being let down by the South-West Monsoon, the Coimbatore Corporation is now pinning hopes on the North-East Monsoon to raise the water level in the Siruvani Dam. The current spell of rain in the catchments has brought fresh hopes of a rise in the water level. In fact, water level is rising steadily and only around 10 ft is left for the full reservoir level of a little more than 67 ft, says Mayor R. Venkatachalam.
The city and the suburbs that are dependent on the Siruvani drinking water scheme fervently hope that the monsoon will provide the amount of water that is required to fill the dam. The Corporation appears compelled to compare what the South-West Monsoon gave last year with what it has this year. The Mayor points out that a good South-West Monsoon last year had enabled a continuous overflow of water from the dam for three months. This year, it had kept the Corporation and other local bodies on tenterhooks for sometime, before filling up at least three-fourths of the dam.
Mr. Venkatachalam says that if the North-East Monsoon helps in touching the FRL, there will be no problem even during summer next year. “Our optimism that the dam will get more inflow is based on what has been happening over the last few days,” he explains. From 57 feet on October 11, the level rose by almost a foot in the next two days because of 40 mm rain in the catchment and the dam on October 12. Five to six falls have been bringing a steady inflow from the catchments in the upper reaches of the Siruvani hills.
The Mayor points out that though the dam had recorded only three to six mm of rain over the next four days, the level kept increasing because of the steady inflow. The present water level is 58.46 ft and the inflow helps maintain this level despite the daily drawal of around 80 million litres of water. Going by the forecast of more rain, especially during Deepavali, there are chances of the dam filling up and benefiting the local bodies dependent on it, he says.