Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Good flow into reservoirs

— Photo: R. Ragu

THANKS TO RAIN: The Marina beach turns fertile for fresh water, whenever it rains. This child, as so many residents around normally do, has fun collecting the freshwater.

CHENNAI: Showers in the catchment areas have brought in considerable flow into the city reservoirs for the past three days. The additional storage realised out of rains is equal to two weeks’ city water supply, Chennai Metrowater officials said.

An official said a little over 400 million cubic feet (mcft) has been added to the four reservoirs in the three days, including 200 mcft realised during the said period from the Kandaleru reservoir in Andhra Pradesh.

The total storage of the city reservoirs was 6,872 mcft on Monday as against their capacity of 11,057 mcft.

The reservoir in Red Hills recorded 31 mm of rainfall during the 24 hours ending 6 a.m. on Monday. Similarly, the reservoirs at Chembarambakkam and Cholavaram registered 20 mm and 12 mm of rainfall respectively. Poondi reservoir, however, recorded only 3 mm of rainfall during the same timeframe.

The Veeranam lake, which augments the drinking water supply of the city, also received a considerable inflow in the past few days.

About 3,800 mcft of Krishna water has been realised since its release from the Kandaleru reservoir in August.

With the present availability of resources, the daily water supply of 650 million litres per day could be sustained till May next year, the official said.

With the northeast monsoon active, the officials expect the storage to increase further in all reservoirs.

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