The southwest monsoon in Kerala has brought in hope for the farmers and general public in five southern districts of Tamil Nadu.Vaigai dam, which is the main source for drinking and irrigation to five districts - Theni, Dindigul, Madurai, Sivaganga and Ramanathapuram, receives water from the Mullaiperiyar reservoir.With not much of rainfall in the catchment area since the last 30 days, many pockets in the five districts turned like a desert and the channels and waterbodies remained dry.On May 29, the Vaigai dam storage level stood at 20.51 feet (maximum level is 71 ft). Many farmers said that they had never seen such a low storage since inception of the reservoir 68 years ago. The height of water at 20 ft was more or less muddy as the silt was at 15 ft, they added.Even the five cusecs of water released from the Vaigai dam was not fit for consumption.Under such circumstances, the southwest monsoon, which turned active some three days ago in Kerala, has come as a fillip to the farmers here.Thanks to the steady inflow in the Mullaiperiyar dam, that from 110.80 ft. on June 3, it has improved to 112.50 ft. in the last three days. The inflow, which was 823 cusecs had also improved to 1290 cusecs on Tuesday. The discharge from the Mullaiperiyar was at 350 cusecs.The storage level in Vaigai dam too had crossed 24 ft. mark with an inflow of 273 cusecs. With rain forecast predicted in Theni, Dindigul and other parts in the next 24 hours, the farmers are in an upbeat mood. Published - June 09, 2026 09:29 pm IST