Chennai has enough drinking water supply
Posted on: 12/May/2016 4:30:35 PM
The water storage in Chennai lakes of volume 5TMC is sufficient enough to meet drinking water needs of the city, say officials at the public works department.
Krishna Water
The Tamil Nadu and Andhra governments drafted a scheme for Krishna drinking water shares for both the states in 1983.
As per this, the Andhra government provides 12 TMC water every year. About 8 TMC water between January and April and 4 TMC between June and October will be opened from the Kandaleru dam near Nellore and the water will be sent to Poondi lake.
Water inflow to Puzhal lake
However, water supply from Kandaleru is stopped for now. Poondi lake has enough water storage in it and coincidentally, summer has started now and the water needs have increased too.
Hence, the water storage in Poondi dam is opened into Puzhal lake, Sembarambakkam lake, Sengudnram and Sozhavaram water bodies at 550 cubic feet.
Speaking about this, the officials from public sector department said the Kandaleru dam will be kept shut for about 20 days every year. This will be done at the time of commencement of second crop cultivation, mostly during March month. Likewise, the dam is closed this year as well.
Despite this, there is enough water supply in Poondi, Sozhavaram, Puzhal, Sembarambakkam, etc.
5.5 TMC Water
To note, 5.5 TMC water was let out to Tamil Nadu between last June and March this year.
As of now, the water level in different lakes are as follows
- Poondi - 924 million cubic feet
- Sembarambakkam – 2413 million cubic feet
- Sengundram lake – 1766 million cubic feet
- Sozhavaram lake – 93 million cubic feet
On the whole, there is 5 TMC water storage. This will be sufficient to meet water needs in Chennai for the next five months.
October month
Apart from this, there is enough water supply in Veeranam lake as well. As per the 1st July contract, water from Krishna has to be opened. This will ensure enough supply to Poondi dam. After October month, we will have to expect the monsoon rain for water.
Looking at the past, there were not enough rain in the past few years. There were 16 percent, 33 percent, and 2 percent lesser rainfall in years 2012, 2013 and 2014 years respectively. In 2015, there was historic rain showers causing devastating effects to the entire city. Hence this ongoing year 2016 is believed to receive enough rainfall which will be of help to meet drinking water needs, say officials.
