Water released from Chembarampakkam reservoir

TAMBARM 07 DECEMBER 2010 FOR CITY CAPTION: People flock to the ‘five vent shutters’ of Chembarambakkam Lake on Tuesday. One of the vents was opened to release water as inflow into the lake was fast increasing since Monday evening. It touched 21.04 metres around noon, when one of the vents was opened. Photo: A.Muralitharan. Story by K.Manikandan.

As heavy inflow to the Chembarampakkam reservoir continued on Tuesday, water was released through one of the five vents of the waterbody, which serves to be one of the prime sources of drinking water to the city.

Officials of the Water Resources Department (WRD) opened the shutter Tuesday afternoon as water level touched 21.04 feet against the maximum height of 24 ft.

The initial discharge of 200 cubic feet per second (cusecs) into the Adyar River was increased to 500 cusecs in tune with the inflow of about 1,700 cusecs. The water was being let out as a precautionary measure to maintain storage. On Tuesday, the storage stood at 2,864 million cubic feet (mcft) against its capacity of 3,300 mcft. Police personnel were deployed near the reservoir to regulate the crowd that thronged to take a look at water gushing out from the vent.