With the Mettur surplus water reaching the Katchupalli lake, farmers and residents of Konganapuram and Edappadi are seeing the lake filling up after 70 years.

The Mettur surplus water scheme, popularly known as the 100 lake scheme, pumps surplus water from Mettur to lakes in the Sankari, Edappadi, Omalur, and Mettur Assembly constituencies. Work started for the ₹565 crore project in April 2020, when the AIADMK was in power.

Under this scheme, when Mettur Dam attains its full capacity, the surplus water will be taken from the dam and pumped to 100 lakes. On June 29 this year, Mettur Dam attained its full capacity and surplus water was pumped through lift irrigation and more than 60 lakes, including Katchupalli lake, in the four Assembly constituencies were filled in the last two months.

Velavan, a farmer of Konganapuram, said the lake spread over 55 acres depends only on rainwater. The farmers have protested to bring the surplus water to the lake and following this, the works were speeded up, and water reached the lake this year. Through this, thousands of acres of farmland in and around the lake will get water for irrigation and the groundwater level and farm well level will increase. The government will take steps to fill the remaining lakes under this scheme soon, Mr. Velavan added.