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Cauvery row takes a backseat
with Mettur overflowing

With incessant rain in catchment areas of the Cauvery in Karnataka over the last few weeks, the Mettur reservoir in Tamil Nadu is full. With the storage level put at 93.98 thousand million cubic feet, which is the optimum, the overflow is now being discharged through Cauvery delta canals in the state.

The water level was 120.32 feet on Sunday evening, with the inflow at 44,592 cusecs, which is on the higher side under the circumstances. Against this, the outflow has been controlled at 19,976 cusecs, for irrigation and power generation. With inflow high, the authorities are considering a higher outflow if the reservoir is not allowed to overflow. However, given possible floods downstream, the authorities are holding back until people in low-lying areas are moved to safer areas.

According to official sources, the water level in the Mettur reservoir stood at 59.77 feet, with total volume put at 24.52 cusecs, the same day last year. The inflow that day was reckoned at 21,819 cusecs. The higher storage this time, facilitated by delayed strengthening of the south-west monsoon, however does not help standing crops, which have already been affected by rain across the state.

Both the rain and Cauvery water failed the farmers when they needed them most a few months back. If anything, possible flooding caused by greater outflows from the Mettur reservoir, can come as a damper for farmers whose delayed crops had to be harvested. For others, who harvested their paddy crop, unseasonal rains have helped prepare fields for sowing.

If there is one area where higher inflow into the Cauvery, coupled with heavy rain across Tamil Nadu, has helped, it is politics. The rain has eased the drinking water situation across the state, including cities like Madras and Madurai. While improving inflow into drinking water storage points in cities and towns, the rain has also raised sub-soil water levels in areas dependent on bore-wells. In such places, in urban and rural centres, even drinking water requirements are met through the bore-well supplied water.

If, however, the situation on the drinking water front has helped the DMK government avoid public flak in an election year, it has diluted the inter-state Cauvery water row involving neighbouring Karnataka, at least for now. But the timing is as crucial as the long-drawn out issue, given the Rajkumar abduction issue threatening inter-state relations further.

The abduction issue hit the headlines just when the south-west monsoon was showing signs of weakening in the early weeks. However, sporadic rain in the Cauvery catchment areas in the following weeks and falling public interest in the kidnap episode that has dragged on for over 70 days saved the day for the two state governments, and also Tamils in Karnataka, who were the target of Kannada chauvinists, first over the Cauvery row in 1992, and more recently, a day after Rajkumar's kidnapping by forest brigand Veerappan on July 30.

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