more-in While the Public Works Department (PWD) has been releasing water in the irrigation canals, taking advantage of the release of 10,000 cusecs of water from the Mettur dam in view of the Cauvery Maha Pushkaram festival, farmers in the district have called upon the department to sustain the release to ensure it reached the tail-end areas of the canals. About 10,000 cusecs of water was released from the Mettur dam for about three days from September 13 in view of the Maha Pushkaram celebration. The quantum of release has been brought down to 2,000 cusecs after that. As the water reached here, the PWD started releasing water into the irrigation canals from the Mayanur bed regulator for the past few days. “We have been releasing water to half the capacity of all irrigation canals. This was essentially to give a wetting to the canals and help improve the groundwater table along the canals. We will stop the release of water on Sunday,” a senior official of the PWD told The Hindu. However, a group of farmers representatives led by Puliyur A. Nagarajan, president, farmers wing of the Tamil Maanilla Congress met the Executive Engineer of the PWD, River Conservation Division, to present a representation demanding the release of water in all 17 irrigation canals by stepping up the discharge in the Mettur dam so that the water reached the tail-end of the canals. “The water released in Uyyakondan canal, which runs up to Thanjavur district, has reached Ettarai on Thursday evening. The water flow in the Kattalai High Level Canal has stopped near Inungur and cannot reach the tail-end areas in Thayanur. The water release in the canals has to be continued to help improve the groundwater table for drinking water purposes and recharge of borewells in the tail-end areas,” he said. The improvement in groundwater table would help the banana crop and also the withering coconut trees. If the borewells are recharged, some farmers may get ready for a late samba paddy crop. “If they could prepare the nurseries now, they can transplant when water is released from the Mettur Dam for irrigation in the delta,” he said. However, a PWD official said the demand of all the 17 irrigation canals was around 4,400 cusecs and this would not be feasible now given the current quantum of water release from Mettur. Farmers in the core delta areas have been emphasising the need for conserving water and say that water should be released from Mettur for irrigation in the delta only when the water level reaches 90 feet in the dam.

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