As the water discharge at Tamil Nadu’s Mettur dam increased, people living in the low-lying delta districts were alerted to move to safer places and not venture into water bodies on Tuesday, August 30. The discharge from the dam was increased to 1.30 lakh cusecs as the inflow from KR Sagar and Kabini reservoirs was increased to the same quantity. With the flow of water into the reservoir on an ascendancy, the discharge will be increased to 1.7 lakh cusec at any moment. This has prompted the district administration to caution people living in low-lying areas and on the banks of the river Cauvery to stay safe and move out from their houses. The district administration officials told IANS that water could enter 50 to 75 houses by Tuesday evening and those residing in these places would be shifted to relief centres.
The district administration has arranged three to five relief centres for accommodating those who would be shifted from their houses by Tuesday evening. As many as 448 people are already in relief centres in Erode district after water entered low-lying areas. The Public Works Department officials are keeping a strict vigil on the river banks and monitoring the movement of water across the districts. The water level in the dam stood at 120 feet, while the availability is 93.47 TMC, the sources said.
The state, along with its neighbours Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, has been witnessing heavy rains for the past few days. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) in its bulletin has predicted heavy rain on Thursday, September 1, over Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Erode, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Salem, Tirupattur, Namakkal, Kallakurichi, Tiruchirapalli, Perambalur, Karur, Dindigul, Madurai, Theni, Thenkasi, Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli districts. Capital city Chennai is likely to see light to moderate rains with thunderstorms over the next 48 hours, the IMD said in its bulletin issued on Tuesday morning.