De-silting started at Chembarambakkam reservoir
Posted on: 25/Oct/2019 10:14:17 AM
It has been nearly a month since the de-silting works on the Chembarambakkam reservoir was stopped.
The news that has emerged out is the WRD or Water Resources Department has once again started de-silting of Chembarambakkam reservoir now. It is brought out that work to de-silt other major lakes in Cholavaram would resume next week. This Cholavaram Lake is also nearly dry.
It must be noted that 2316 hectare Chembarambakkam Lake remains largely dry and this lake is one of the major drinking water sources of Chennai city. Information is some portion covered with vegetation acts as a hindrance to the water to flow in from the catchment area. This Chembarambakkam has got a total capacity of 3645 mcft and has got storage of just 28 mcft. This storage was due to the marginal flow of rainwater in this NE monsoon season.
For the purpose of increasing the storage capacity of the Chembarambakkam reservoir, de-silting works began in the month of September. The issues about environment clearance have stopped the de-silting works here is known.
It is worthy to mention that the project is aimed at clearing 151.80 lakh cubic meters of silt in a span of 8 years. Information gathered is the contractors have already remitted Rs 1 crore towards removing silt. It is revealed that the contractors would pay for the silt to be removed and later sell the silt in a revenue- generation model.
In the next few months, 78,000 cubic meters of silt would be removed from Chembarambakkam Lake. It has been revealed by some officials that steady inflows and increasing water levels were also the reasons behind stopping this exercise in 2019. The superb piece of information is once de-silting works are over than the 4 lakes (Chembarambakkam, Cholavaram, Poondi, and Red Hills) would have additional storage of 2000 mcft.
