Despite release of water, storage in Chennai lakes up

Despite a huge amount of water being released from Poondi lake as a precautionary measure, the overall storage of the five city lakes continues to rise.

According to Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Metrowater) data, Poondi, Cholavaram, Red Hills, Thervoykandigai and Chembarambakkam lakes had total storage of 9,711 Mcft on Monday. This is despite the water being released from Poondi lake at more than 1,000 cusecs.

On Sunday morning, a few hours before the release of water, the lakes had only 9,696 Mcft. The water level in Poondi lake rose to 2,839 Mcft on Monday from 2,807 Mcft on Sunday. While the water is released at 1,000 cusecs, the lake receives water at 1,464 cusecs.

It can be noted that the water storage on Monday is 339 Mcft higher than the storage on October 5. During the day, the lake had only 9,372 Mcft. The present higher inflow is due to the rainfall in the catchment areas of the Poondi river.

As per the data, Chembarambakkam lake had 2,850 Mfct and Red Hills lake had 2,882 Mcft. Cholavaram and Thervoykandigai had 679 Mcft and 471 Mcft respectively.

On October 5, 2020, the lakes had less than half the present storage with 4,764 Mcft. On the other hand, the Metrowater had already increased the drinking water supply to 1,000 million litres per day with most of the water being drawn from the lakes. It may be recalled that the release of Krishna River water in Andhra Pradesh was stopped based on a request from the State Public Works Department. The request was made citing the safety of brimming lakes.

“Northeast monsoon in the State has just begun and the storage in the lakes has already reached 82 per cent. As more rains are expected in the coming weeks, precautionary measures will be taken periodically. Moreover, there will be no water deficiency next summer,” an official said.