The quantum of surplus water being let out from the city reservoirs has been reduced as rains have abated in the past two days.
According to officials of the Water Resources Department, the flow into the waterbodies in Red Hills, Poondi and Chembarampakkam has decreased. On Monday, about 500 cubic feet per second (cusecs) received from the catchment areas of Red Hills reservoir was released. The discharge on Sunday was twice this.
On the inundation in areas along the surplus channel, officials said temporary restoration work is under progress at the vulnerable points of the channel, including at Vadaperumbakkam and Vadakarai.
Though the flow into the Chembarampakkam reservoir declined to 240 cusecs on Monday, the department is letting out 1,000 cusecs into the Adyar river to bring down the level to 20.5 ft. At present, the level is 20.81 feet. The reservoir continues to receive water from the catchment areas in Sriperumbudur. “We do not want to reduce further as another bout of rainfall would bring in heavy inflow,” said an official.
However, discharge from Poondi reservoir into Kosasthalaiyar river has been stepped up to 1,000 cusecs to fill up Tamaraipakkam and Vallur anicuts located downstream of the reservoir and facilitate groundwater recharge in the neighbouring areas.
The surplus water from Poondi reservoir is also being used to clean 30-km stretch of Cooum river for the past three days. The water diverted near Korattur anicut upstream of Chembarampakkam reservoir has reached Padikuppam near Anna Nagar, officials said.
The department has suspended release of water to the Cholavaram reservoir from Poondi as the storage in the former is nearing the maximum level.
The storage level at Cholavaram is 864 million cubic feet as against the capacity of 881 mcft.
