Chennai and its neighbouring districts have so far had a good northeast monsoon and received surplus rainfall. But the four reservoirs, which are the prime sources of the city’s drinking water needs, continue to remain more than half empty.
The reservoirs in Poondi, Cholavaram, Red Hills and Chembarambakkam have been receiving only minimal inflow, especially since last week. Though steady, this inflow has not been enough to push up the water level.
On Wednesday, the combined storage of the waterbodies stood at 4,415 million cubic feet, which is only 40% of their total capacity.
Officials of the Water Resources Department said the storage at Poondi reservoir is yet to touch 1,000 mcft as it is receiving water only from local catchment areas. “It fills up fast whenever it receives water from the Ammapalli dam in Andhra Pradesh and the Kesavaram anicut flowing through the Kosasthalaiyar. Similarly, other water bodies are also filling up only slowly as inflow is minimal,” an official said. On average, the storage in the four waterbodies is going up by 100-200 mcft daily for the past few days. However, this storage has been enough for Chennai Metrowater to step up the city’s drinking water supply.
“If the total storage in the four reservoirs touches 8,000 mcft, we consider it comfortable enough to maintain daily water supply for a year. Water from the Veeranam tank and Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh would augment the water supply,” the Metrowater official said.
Meanwhile, the recent rainfall in Tiruvallur district has reflected on the storage in other waterbodies. Of the 337 water bodies in Tiruvallur district, nearly 87 have reached their full level as on Wednesday.
According to WRD data, about 112 tanks are only half-full and 80 more water bodies have a storage of less than 50% of their capacity. “We have more than a month to go before the northeast monsoon withdraws from the region. There is still time for the waterbodies to fill up,” a WRD official said.
