Vijay opens Mettur 80 days late as Cauvery water starts a 45-day run

C. Joseph Vijay opened the sluices of Stanley Reservoir at Mettur at 11:30 a.m. on 1 September and threw flowers and grain onto the water as it left the dam. It was his first release from the structure since he became chief minister. The customary date is 12 June. This year the gates stayed shut for 80 extra days because the southwest monsoon left too little water in the Cauvery basin.

At 8 a.m. the reservoir stood at 91.56 feet against a full level of 120 feet. Storage was 54.45 thousand million cubic feet against a capacity of 93.47 tmcft. Inflow that morning had slipped to 10,857 cusecs from 11,501. Water Resources Department officials said the first pulse would be 3,000 cusecs, rising to 7,000 by 8 p.m.

The government has set a 45-day window, until 15 October, subject to storage and fresh inflow. The water is meant for samba cultivation across 12 delta districts. Thanjavur is the main beneficiary. Officials told The Hindu that water takes about three weeks to reach the tail of the system. Holding the release any longer would have cut into the crop calendar.

The arithmetic is tight. An official estimate circulating in Chennai puts daily drawdown near one tmcft. After setting aside about 10 tmcft for drinking water, environmental flow and dead storage, the present pondage supports roughly six weeks if no new water arrives. Late monsoon rain in the catchment would stretch that. A dry September would force a cut before the 15 October date.

Vijay flew into Salem Airport at Kamalapuram around 10:15 a.m., drove through Thoppur, Mecheri and Kunjandiyur, and reached the dam with cabinet colleagues including N. Anand. He wore a green shawl, posed with farmers and spoke to them on the apron. Crowds threw flowers on the motorcade. The pageantry is part of the job in the delta. So is the risk that the water stops before the second wetting.

Farmers have already asked him to keep the gates open past 45 days. The government says it will watch inflows and irrigation demand day by day. That is the only honest answer the numbers allow. Mettur is not a surplus reservoir this season. It is a ration book.

The delay itself is not rare. The dam has opened in September before. What is new is the political setting. Vijay is running his first full agricultural season as chief minister. The Cauvery dispute with Karnataka remains a live file. Inadequate rain in the upper basin is what kept the gates shut in June. Any later fight over sharing will land on a reservoir that started the season already short.

For households in the delta the release is drinking water as well as irrigation. The government said both needs were weighed. That claim will be tested in the last two weeks of the 45-day window, when drinking-water draw and field demand overlap and the remaining storage is easiest to see.

Until then the river is moving. The first water left Mettur on a Tuesday morning after an 80-day wait. How far it travels, and for how many days, is now a function of rain in the hills and discipline at the sluice.