Water from Mordhana released for three days

VELLORE: Following an order from the State Government, Health Minister Dr Vijay and District Collector Ajay Yadav released water from the Mordhana reservoir on Friday.  The government secretary in his order dated February 22, 2012, has stated that 230 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water, including 60 cfs from the left canal and 70 cfs from the right canal, can be released from the reservoir over a period of three days. This is expected to benefit irrigation and farming activities in the region.The water from the reservoir, which is built across the Koundinya river, a tributary of the Palar, benefits 19 tanks in  Gudiyattam and Katpadi taluks. These tanks enable farming activities on approximately 8,300 acres and help recharge  underground water to some extent. While water from the Koundinya river directly irrigates around 93 acres, another 110 acres are irrigated through water from the canal. While the left canal supports irrigation activities in the Ayacut areas attached to seven tanks and covers approximately 4,226 acres, the right canal serves about 3,935 acres.The total capacity of the reservoir is 261 million cubic feet at a height of 11.5 meters. It presently holds 99.218 million cubic feet of water at a height of 4.9 meters. While the average rainfall in the state was good, the catchments area  didn’t receive good rainfall.