T.N. rains: Water Resources Dept. nominates 38 nodal officers to monitor monsoon preparedness

Water from the Panthalkudi channel enters homes at Kattabomman Nagar in Sellur, Madurai, on Monday, October 14, 2024
| Photo Credit: R. Ashok

The Tamil Nadu Water Resources Department has nominated 38 nodal officers for each district in the State to monitor the preparedness for the Northeast monsoon, which is likely to set in around October 16-17.

In a government directive issued on Monday (October 14, 2024), the WRD said that officials in the rank of executive engineers would coordinate to meet for emergencies during the monsoon season. Besides coordinating with the field engineers in the districts, the nodal officers would also team up with other departments for efficient management of monsoon-related work.

The department has deployed engineers for the first time for monsoon-related work in various districts.

Officials of the WRD said the teams would check the water level in the waterbodies and ensure that breaches are plugged. They would coordinate to facilitate free flow of floodwater without obstructions in waterways and coordinate on flood mitigation in various districts.

A team of 31 engineers, headed by officials of the State Water Resources Management Agency, were already nominated to monitor monsoon preparedness work, particularly in Chennai, Tiruvallur, and Kancheepuram. They were assigned to check the progress of various projects being implemented.

A senior official said that the possibility for fluvial flooding, which is caused by rivers that carry more than their capacity, is less now. The 90 reservoirs in the State have only 57.47% of their storage capacity of 224.2 thousand million cubic feet as of Monday.

Similarly, of the 14,139 irrigation tanks in the State, only 706 tanks have reached their full storage capacity as of Monday. Another 1,584 tanks have storage above 75% of their capacity.

“We have enough buffer space in waterbodies in the State to store floodwater. In Chennai, the five major reservoirs have a storage of only 33.2% of their total capacity,” the official said. Many of the tanks in Chennai and surrounding districts too have only 25% of water storage and await monsoon rain spell to fill them.