Slugfest over release of dam water

Sudden release of water to the tune 1.8 lakh cusecs from Sathanur dam triggered flooding

- RAJALAKSHMI SAMPATH

The unanticipated and sudden release of water to the tune 1.8 lakh cusecs from Sathanur dam in Tiruvannamalai district on Sunday night may have triggered the flooding in many areas along the Thenpennai river in Tiruvannamalai, Villupuram, and Cuddalore districts, but lack of specific details about the level of flooding or pointed instruction to move to designated relief shelters, during the initial hours of the calamity, seem to have put the residents to avoidable trouble.

While the Tamil Nadu government had said that it did everything as per the standard operating procedure and alerted the people along the banks of the river, a visit by TNIE to many of these villages showed that a majority of the residents either did not receive proper alerts or the communication was insufficient.