MADURAI: The Water Resources Department of the Public Works Department issued the first flood warning for the people residing in the banks of River Vaigai in Theni, Madurai, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram districts as the dam level touched 66 feet on Saturday morning.
The Vaigai dam region received as much as 94 mm rainfall by Saturday morning.
WRD stopped drawing water for irrigation on July 21. As on date, only 69 cusecs of water is drawn from Vaigai dam. With all Kuruvai cultivation areas receiving torrential rainfall for the last two weeks, the WRD reasoned that providing excess water for irrigation would harm the paddy crop. Since the inflow is consistent clocking 1000 pluc cusecs anyday, the dam started filling up faster.
As on Saturday morning, Vaigai Dam level stood at 66.01 feet against the total capacity of 71 feet. The storage of the dam is 4854 mcft while the dam is receiving 2288 cusecs of water. WRD officials said that they would issue a second warning when the dam level touches 68.5 feet and third warning at 69 feet and all the inflow will be directly released into the river. Since the North East monsoon is yet to start in Tamil Nadu, the department will try to hold the water in dams, said WRD officials.