Just one week has gone now since the NE monsoon has started. The sensational piece of information is most of the reservoirs are nearing full capacity. It is now said that the government is keeping a close watch on the reservoirs.
To take stock of this situation, the chief minister of TN, Mr. E. Palaniswami has convened a meeting of various departments on Tuesday. It is important to note that the water reservoirs in TN have touched 85% of their combined storage capacity.
Important information collected is the district collectors have been told to stay alert and keep an eye on low lying areas where there could be huge water flow during heavy rains.
As per Mr. J. Radhakrishnan, revenue administration and disaster management commissioner, district collectors have been asked to monitor river courses also. It must be taken into account that the state government has deputed 60 IAS officers to the districts and this included 16 in Chennai, 16 in Kancheepuram, 5 in Tiruvallur districts for the sake of monitoring NE monsoon preparedness.
For the purpose of better management, the revenue administration has been coordinating with PWD, highways and local bodies. It is known that lots of efforts were taken in the last few years on disaster risk reduction.
The point to be noted here is ensuring effective communication on early warnings at an appropriate time is important for people to move to safety. By involving the heads of coastal districts, the social media groups have been activated. Fishermen have been given advisory also.
To prevent flooding and to harvest rainwater, the government has de-silted 3174 km of rivers and irrigation canals. All 4 reservoirs across the Cauvery are full of water and it is said that the state government is keenly watching the outflows from Karnataka.
It must be noted that last Tuesday Mettur reservoir of Salem district received an inflow of 16227 cusecs and the dam has been maintaining an outflow of 2000 cusecs. Against a full capacity of 93.4 tmcft, the storage stood at 90 tmcft. The important information is at the same time in 2018 the storage was 71 tmcft.