After a two-day lull, rains started lashing Puducherry and its suburbs on Friday throwing normal life out of gear and inundating low-lying areas. Though the situation was normal, the intermittent rains brought copious inflow into the dry tanks and ponds in the suburbs.
Sources said that the north east monsoon arrived on October 27. Puducherry recorded a rainfall of 96.10 mm in the last two weeks. The highest rainfall of 100 mm on a single day was recorded on November 6 and 82 mm was recorded on November 5.
Good inflows
Almost all the water bodies received good inflows though not to the brim. The PWD authorities had been instructed to maintain strict vigil on all water bodies in case of exceptionally heavy rainfall.
There were 84 irrigation tanks and more than 500 ponds in Pudhucherry which were the lifeline of ground water recharging systems, source for drinking water and backbone for the agriculture.
The present water level of the Oussudu Lake, the most important fresh-water lake of the region, stood at 1.32 of 3.5 m total depth. The lake covered an area of about 800 hectares spread across both Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, of which 390 hectares were in Puducherry and the rest in Tamil Nadu.
Similarly, the water level of Bahour, the second largest lake in Puducherry, stood at 2.46 of 3.60 metre total depth.
According to PWD sources, as many as 30 tanks including Karikilampakkam, Sitheri, Embalam, Thirukkanur, Panayadikuppam and Karayambathur tanks had reached full level.
A top Government official told The Hindu that the rainfall was not intense but isolated and scattered along the coastal areas in Puducherry and its suburbs. The Indian Meteorology Department had forecast rain and thunder shower during the next two days.
He said that few areas had been inundated and the commissioners of municipalities and commune panchayats had taken cognisance of the complaints. Water was being baled out using generators.
Control rooms
The administration was fully geared up and as many as 150 relief centres had been opened across Puducherry to shelter people in case of inundation. Round-the-clock control rooms with toll free phone facilities (numbers 1070 and 1077) had been set up at the Collectorate premises. Public could contact these numbers for any assistance, the official added.
