Poondi and Puzhal reservoirs dry up - Chennai may have a drinking water shortage
Posted on: 07/Sep/2016 3:52:31 PM
The 4 water reservoirs at Poondi, Puzhal, Chembarambakkam, and Sholavaram cater to the drinking water needs of the Chennai city.Poondi reservoir is of 35` height. It has a capacity of 3231 mcft (million cubic feet) of water.
Puzhal reservoir is 21.20’ high and has the capacity to hold 3300 mcft of water.Chembarambakkam reservoir is 24’ high and has the capacity to hold 3645 mcft of water.Sholavaram reservoir is 17.86’ high and has a capacity of 881 mcft of water.
As per the Krishna river water sharing agreement between Tamil Nadu and Andhra, water has not been released from the Krishna river dam by the Andhra government. With a real hot summer season just ended, all the 4 major reservoirs in Chennai have dried up and almost empty.
As on today (7th September), Poondi reservoir has only 545 mcft of water. Puzhal reservoir has 601 mcft. Chembarambakkam reservoir has 110 mcft. Sholavaram reservoir has 67 mcft.
As against the total capacity to hold 11.147 mcft of water, the 4 reservoirs now ave only 1323 mcft of water.Following this situation, the opening of the Poondi reservoir for drinking water requirements has been stopped completely.
Meanwhile, as per the Krishna river water share agreement, the officials from Tamil Nadu State PWD (Public Works Department) wrote letters to the Andhra government to open the outlet from the Krishna river to the Poondi reservoir.
However, Andhra state government officials have informed that as the current water storage in Kandaleru lake is very low, it is not possible to allow water flow to Poondi reservoir.
