Flood alert issued to 14 villages as water from Sathanur dam in Tiruvannamalai released

Sathanur dam in Tiruvannamalai
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

Flood alert to 14 villages along the bank of Thenpennai river has been issued by the Water Resources Department (WRD) as 20,000 cuses of water per second is being released from the Sathanur dam in Tiruvannamalai on Sunday (December 1. 2024), after the level reached 118.05 feet as against the dam’s total capacity of 119 feet.

Water release from the dam is done periodically since September when 850 cuses of water were released then. This time, heavy rain fell in the villages on the foothills of Kalvarayan Hills such as Lalpettai, Kattumannarkoil, Thattakudi, Mullakudi.

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“Immediate flood warning was issued to 14 villages. However, the entire 250 villages located downstream of the dam should be on high alert due to the continuous flow of excess rainwater from upstream. Only in December, we can store water to the dam’s full capacity of 119 feet,” K. Santhosh, Assistant Engineer (AE), WRD (Sathanur Dam), told The Hindu.  

Officials of WRD, which maintains the dam, said that of the total water inflow of 20,000 cusecs per second due to water released from Krishnagiriand Pambar dam in Krishnagiri and Kalvarayan hills. These water sources, which are upstream to Sathanur dam, have been receiving steady rains in recent weeks. 

The sluice gates of the dam that is located 8 km away from the reservoir downstream was opened to discharge water into the dam’s left and right bank canals. Of the total storage capacity of 7,321 mcft of water, the dam had storage of 7,100 mcft.

In his order, Tiruvannamalai Collector D. Bhaskara Pandian asked residents in villages along the bank 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 move residents from low-lying areas along the riverbank to safer places. Residents were also warned from crossing the river as the water flow has been on the rise. 

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.