Chennai:
The rains have brought some cheer to water managers as the trend of
depleting water levels have been reversed with inflow of Krishna Water
from Kandeleru reservoir as well as heavy rains on Sunday night.
A water resources department official said that a total of 1,735
cusecs of additional water received on Sunday. The reservoirs to
benefit most were Poondi, Red Hills and Chembarambakkam.
A WRD official said that catchment area in Poondi received 35mm of
rainfall which resulted in an inflow of 934 cusecs. This also included
Krishna Water inflow from the Kandaleru Dam.
The official also said that Chembarambakkam reservoir received huge
amount of inflow as it received 25mm of rainfall. He said the inflow
was nearly 200 cusecs.
Similarly, Veeranam (275 cusecs) and Red Hills (380 cusecs) received
additional inflows. However, Sholavaram did not have any added inflow.
“The catchment area in Sholavaram received only 10mm of rainfall,” he
said.
A senior Chennai Metro Water official told Express that the inflow
into the reservoirs supplying water to city has brought in some
respite. However, he said it is too early to comment on whether the
pattern of distribution in supply would undergo any change.
Currently, Chennai Metro Water is providing only 587 mld of piped
water which is nearly half the demand of the city due to failure of
monsson in the last two consecutive years.
Interestingly, Metro Water is keeping its finger crossed and looking
up to the skies for a wet year. “If we have atleast 4tmc feet to 5 tmc
feet of water then we could think of changing the pattern of water
distribution,” the official said.
Interestingly, the rains as well as Krishna Water besides the
contingency plan of Chennai Metro Water has helped the water levels to
improve from that of last year. Last year the total water in Poondi,
Cholavaram, Red Hills and Chembarambakkam was 1281 million cubic feet.
The current levels are 2,052 in the four reservoirs.
Metro water was supplying 831 mld of water a day to qunch the city’s
thirst. With the addition of new areas and new water connections,
Metro water now has to supply an estimated 1100 mld of water.
Reservoir Full capacity Storage
(now) Inflows Storage (last year
Poondi 3231 mcft 556
mcft 934 cusecs 315 mcft
Cholavaram 881 mcft
------------------------------
Red Hills 3300 mcft 802
mcft 380 cusecs 477 mcft
Chembarambakkam 3645 mcft 682 mcft
146 cusecs 479 mcft
Total 11057 mcft 2,052 mcft
1450 cusecs 1281mcft
As per data received from Water Resources Department. (Veeranam levels
not included)
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