This year’s southwest monsoon has smashed all previous records in the realisation of Cauvery water by Tamil Nadu.
An State government official says that until now, the cumulative realisation since June 1 would have touched 460 thousand million cubic feet (tmc ft), though the data (up to October 2), as cleared by the Central Water Commission (CWC), put it at 454.6 tmc ft.
In the last four days, the State received at least one tmc ft a day, the official says, adding that given the current trend and nearly eight more months left of this water year, the total realisation is likely to cross the 500-tmc ft mark by May 2023.
(Only the CWC’s calculations are considered because the reference point for measurement is the Biligundulu station, which is being maintained by the agency.)
Since 1974-75 (the period of which was taken into account by the Supreme Court-constituted high-level technical team in 2016), the highest annual realisation was 455.4 tmc ft in 1975-76.
Subsequently, only on four occasions, barring the current year, did the realisation exceed the figure of 400 tmc ft.
The total approximate amount of realisation for 1978-79 was 400.6 tmc ft; 1980-81-442.9 tmc ft; 1981-82-417 tmc ft; and 2018-19-405.4 tmc ft.
But none of these years was like the present year when the aggregate realisation crossed the 450-tmc ft mark in just four months. In those four years, southwest monsoon yielded approximately 291 tmc ft, 342 tmc ft, 299 tmc ft and 345 tmc ft respectively. In 1975-76, the State received around 306 tmc ft during the southwest monsoon and 149 tmc ft in the remaining eight months (October-May).
As for the other four years, the State got, on an average, 100 tmc ft more during the corresponding period of the eight months in three years and 60 tmc ft in one year (2018-19).
