As NE monsoon picks pace, Chennai lakes add 300 mcft water in one week

According to Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Metrowater) data, Poondi, Cholavaram, Redhills, Thervoykandigai and Chembarambakkam lakes had total storage of 9,828 mcft on Friday. This is despite the water being released from Poondi lake at more than 1,000 cusecs.

On October 30, the lakes had only 9,537 mcft, which is 291 mcft less storage. The Metrowater maintains the water storage in Poondi lake at 2,807 mcft by releasing 1,023 cusecs. The lake received 1,023 cusecs of water on Friday morning.

As per the data, Chembarambakkam lake had 2,887 mcft and Redhills lake had 2,756 mcft. Cholavaram and Thervoykandigai had 881 mcft and 475 mcft respectively. The rise in water storage is due to significant rainfall in catchment areas of the lakes.

On November 5, 2020, the lakes had only 6,199 mcft. On the other hand, the Metrowater had already increased the drinking water supply to 1,000 million litres per day with most of the water, around 500 million litres, being drawn from the lakes. It may be recalled that the release of Krishna River water in Andhra Pradesh was stopped based on a request from the Public Works Department. The request was made citing the safety of brimming lakes.

“Northeast monsoon in the State has just begun and the storage in the lakes has already reached 83 per cent. As more rains are expected in the coming weeks, precautionary measures will be taken periodically. Moreover, there will be no water deficiency next summer,” an official said.