Chennai: Rain ups reservoir levels, cheers water managers

Chennai: Heavy rain on Saturday has helped improve the storage level in reservoirs supplying the city. On Sunday, the combined storage level in the four reservoirs was 4,516mcft (million cubic feet), 40% of the total capacity of 11,057mcft. Poondi on Sunday had 130mcft; Cholavaram 96mcft; Red Hills 2,493mcft and Chembarambakkam 1,797mcft.

The city and its suburbs received good rain almost throughout Saturday night, with Nungambakkam recording 1.5cm of rain and Meenambakkam registering 6.1cm. Since June 1, as part of the southwest monsoon, the city and its suburbs received 236.8mm of rain against the expected 213mm, a surplus of 11%.

Over the next two days, a Met department forecast says, the sky over the city will be cloudy and there could be moderate rain.

PWD officials said Red Hills on Saturday recorded 5.2cm of rain, Cholavaram 5cm and Chembarambakkam 2.1cm. All three reservoirs are in Tiruvallur district which received good rain last week also, said an official.

At this time last year, the officials said, the storage level at Poondi was at 16mcft, while the others had reached dead storage level. This year, the good storage levels are due to a significant quantity of rain, mainly at nights.

A Metrowater official said the Veeranam tank in Cuddalore district, one of the sources of drinking water for Chennai, is almost full. The tank with a storage capacity of 1,465mcft now has 1,401mcft, with Metrowater drawing 180MLD (million litres a day). All this has left the city in a comfortable position with regard to water supply, the official said.

Work on the fifth reservoir to supply Chennai, at Thervoykandigai in Tiruvallur district, is nearing completion. With a capacity to store 500mcft, or 0.1tmcft (thousand million cubic feet), it is bigger than the Cholavaram reservoir in terms of storage capacity, said the official. By next year, he added, Metrowater will be able to draw from it to supply the city.

Taking into consideration the satisfactory storage levels in the reservoirs, the government announced an increase in supply to the city’s residents. Metrowater, which had been supplying 650MLD, raised it to 700MLD and has been maintaining this even today, said a senior Metrowater official.