Tamil Nadu yearns for date with monsoon in December

Chennai: Forget about summer, the January spring could be tiring and thirsty for residents of Tamil Nadu as water bodies and reservoirs in the state are now in a state of stress with storage capacity dwindling below 20 per cent. “The storage level of water in majors dams and storage reservoirs like Amaravati, Bhavani Sagar, Mettur, Poondi and Vaigai is not encouraging and if the monsoon fails, the state will come out with a monsoon failure policy by December-end”, a top government official told DC. Department secretaries of PWD, agriculture, municipal administration, rural development and revenue have been asked to check the status of rainfall and submit the weekly status reports. In case of farmers, the situation is assessed on a daily basis. “We have been told by the Indian meteorological department that a depression system will bring copious showers to TN by the first week of December and we are waiting with fingers crossed,”  the official said.

To help Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur the state will urge neighboring Andhra to ensure that the due Krishna water is released. Metro water tankers have also been briefed to be ready by next month so that a summer contingency plan can be formulated in advance, said a senior metro water official adding that all four reservoirs in Chennai (Redhills, Poondi, Cholavaram and Chembarambakkam) have a total storage of 785 mcft, which is just seven per cent of the total capacity of 11,057 mcft.

Meanwhile the agriculture department has sounded an alert in delta districts and has instructed field directors to ensure that maximum number of farmers in TN are covered under the recently launched Prime Minister Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) scheme. “There are about 7 lakh farmers in delta districts, of this more than three lakh have been covered under the PMFBY scheme and another one lakh farmers will be brought under the insurance ambit by December 15”, a senior officer with state agriculture department said.