The dipping storage level in the reservoirs has begun to reflect on the regularity of piped water supply to the city.
Several areas, including Villivakkam, T. Nagar, Choolaimedu and Royapettah, are facing interruptions in piped water supply. At present, about 600 million litres of water a day is being provided on alternate days. But, residents say sometimes the taps run dry for over four days and they have to opt for tanker supply or packaged drinking water.
To manage the water shortage, Chennai Metrowater is pumping more water from agricultural wells hired in Tiruvallur district.
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The three reservoirs in Red Hills, Poondi and Chembarambakkam are losing nearly eight million cubic feet daily due to evaporation. Cholavaram reservoir went dry nearly a month ago.
As the storage of 1,226 mcft in the water bodies will last only till mid-August, Metrowater has increased the volume of water obtained from 250 private agricultural wells from 15 million litres a day (mld) to 70 mld in the last one month. The villages from where groundwater is sourced include Magaral, Pullarambakkam and Kilanoor.
In a bid to make optimum use of available resources, water from Poondi reservoir is being diverted to Chembarambakkam reservoir as the storage is lesser than Red Hills. The last time the storage in reservoirs dipped below 1,300 mcft was in September 2013, said officials of Water Resources Department.
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Sources in Metrowater said hired agricultural wells were used as a last resort to continue water supply of 580-600 mld to the city. Besides desalination plants in Minjur and Nemmeli, water from Veeranam tank also helps manage the water crisis. The water agency has also started drawing about 30 mld from local sources in merged areas.
With the supply of Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh suspended a few weeks ago owing to plummeting storage levels in Kandaleru reservoir, the city is anxiously waiting for the monsoon to fill reservoirs.
The borewells in Neyveli that could yield up to 55 mld has been kept in reserve to meet any crisis situation.
* At present, the four main reservoirs have a storage of 1,263 million cubic feet against the combined capacity of 11,057 mcft
*Sweltering day temperatures hovering around 38 degree Celsius also leads to evaporation loss of nearly 8 million cubic feet daily in city reservoirs
*2004 was the worst drought year when the reservoirs went completely dry for several months
*Metrowater runs nearly 4,000 tanker trips daily to provide free water supply and also trips on payment
*Private tankers operate over 3,000 trips daily to various places, including IT hubs
*Chennai receives about 580-600 million litres a day on alternate days
*250 Agricultural wells in Tiruvallur district have been hired to offset the gap in supply from reservoirs