A month on, discharge from Red Hills reservoir stopped

With inflow from Poondi reservoir going down, the Water Resources Department (WRD) stopped discharge from Red Hills lake after a month. During the northeast monsoon rains that was particularly intense in the last week if November, the authorities had released more than three thousand million cubic feet (TMC) from the waterbody – enough to supply drinking water to the city for three months.

“For the past two weeks, the inflow gradually decreased to 200 cubic feet per second (cusecs) from 500 cusecs. So the shutters were closed from Friday. Currently, the reservoir has a storage of nearly 3,200 million cubic feet (mcft) against its total capacity of 3,300 mcft, and more than three TMC water was discharged during the northeast monsoon rains,” said a senior WRD official in charge of Red Hills reservoir.

Though there has not been any rain for about month, the Poondi reservoir is still receiving water from the hilly regions of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Hence, a medium flow would be maintained till March. Water from it would be let out to other waterbodies in the city.

“Around 200 – 250 cusecs of excess water is being discharged to Cooum river and Chembarambakkam reservoir. As Poondi reservoir receives water from monsoon rains as well as inflow from Chittur hills in Andhra, the discharge will be continued at least for 2-3 months,” said another official who handles Poondi reservoir.

As Kosasthalayar river is carrying flood water to its full capacity, at least 200 cusecs of water has been diverted to Cooum river from Poondi, which would help to flush out polluted water in the river and also help recharge the groundwater table. The Chembarambakkam reservoir is receiving 200 cusecs and 150 cusecs is being discharged, said an official. The shutters are expected to be closed in about 5-6 days as the inflow is reducing.