Chennai gets 180 MLD more drinking water this year

According to Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Metro Water) data, the water manager supplied 830.60 MLD of drinking water on Monday. On the same day in 2019 (December 14), the Metro Water could supply only 650.56 MLD, which is around 180 million litres less.

As per the data, of the 830.60 MLD, as much as 512.57 MLD was drawn from Red Hills, Poondi and Chembarambakkam lakes. Of the 512.57 MLD, 221 MLD came from Chembarambakkam alone, which brimmed first during the rain, forcing authorities to release excess water. In 2019, the lakes had supplied only 276.83 MLD, including 56 MLD from Chembarambakkam.

As more water was drawn from the lakes for the distribution, the daily production of drinking water at the Nemmeli desalination plant was cut down by nearly 50 per cent. Against the 100 MLD production capacity, the Metro Water only drew 50.63 MLD on Monday from the plant.

It may be noted that the Metrowater was supplying only 650 MLD for several months and increased the supply gradually to 730 MLD and subsequently to 830 MLD after the rains. Presently, the five lakes that supply drinking water to the city have a combined storage of 10,315 mcft, which is 87.73 per cent storage when compared to the total capacity.

Despite having a storage of 71 per cent and 56 per cent, the Metro Water is in no need to draw water from Cholavaram and Thervoy Kandigai lakes.

“The city needs around 1 TMC of water per month and the lakes have a present storage of 10 TMC. The available storage will easily last till the end of next year,” a Metrowater official said.