A flood alert was issued to 34 villages along the banks of the Thenpennai river in Tiruvannamalai district on Tuesday, November 7, 2023, by the Water Resources Department (WRD), as 500 cusecs of water per second are being released from the Sathanur dam.
Water is being released as the dam’s level reached 117.95 feet as against its total capacity of 119 feet.
This is the second time water is being released from the dam this season: on October 13, 850 cuses of water were released. This time, heavy rain lashed villages on the foothills of Kalvarayan Hills including Lalpettai, Kattumannarkoil, Thittakudi, Mullakudi and Paruthikudi. These villages come under the Tirukkoyilur, Vanapuram and Thandrampet taluks in Villupuram, Kallakurichi and Tiruvannamalai districts respectively.
“Water from Sathanur dam will be released up to 1,000 cuses per second by Tuesday evening to maintain the storage level at 117 ft as per norms for the month of November,” said B. Rajesh, Assistant Engineer (AE), WRD (Sathanur Dam).
Officials of the WRD, which maintains the dam, said that of the total water inflow of 3,000 cuses per second released from the Krishnagiri dam due to rains, 500 cuses of water is being released into the river. The sluice gates of the dam, that is located 8 km away from the reservoir downstream, were opened on Tuesday morning, and water was released from 8 a.m. onwards, distributed to the left and right bank canals from the pick-up dam. Of the total storage capacity of 7,321 mcft of water, the dam had storage of 7,220 mcft before the release of the water.
In his order, Tiruvannamalai Collector B. Murugesh has asked residents in villages along the banks of the river to relocate themselves to safer places away from the riverbank. Local panchayat and revenue officials and the police were also directed to take necessary steps to evacuate residents from low-lying area to safer places. Residents were also warned about crossing the river as the water flow has been on the rise.
Public Works Department (PWD) officials said this is the first time after many years that the dam was able to store water to its capacity of 119 feet, since its inception in 1958. This was made possible after the old, rusty sluice gates were replaced with new ones, in a massive restoration project of the dam that took place last year. Earlier, water was stored only up to 99 feet, in consideration the safety of the structure.
Every year, 4 tmc of water is stored in the dam for irrigation. The dam also helps to store water in 88 tanks along the route in these districts. While water from the dam’s left bank canal feeds 30 tanks in Tiruvannamalai and 10 in Villupuram, the right bank canal is connected to 48 tanks in Villupuram.
The dam also provides at least 2 tmc water for domestic consumption of residents in at least 150 villages and major towns like Chengam and Tiruvannamalai, without reducing its deck storage level of 56 ft.
