Water level in Chennai Metros reservoirs very low
Posted on: 12/Sep/2016 3:59:05 PM
The entire drinking water needs of the Chennai Metro city residents are taken care of by the city’s 4 major water reservoirs – Poondi, Puzhal, Cholavaram, and Chembarambakkam.
Poondi reservoir is 35’ high. It has a capacity to hold 3231 mcft of water. Puzhal reservoir is 21.20’. It can hold 3300 mcft of water.
Chembarambakkam reservoir is 24’. It can hold 3645 mcft of water. Cholavaram reservoir is 17.86’. It can hold 881 mcft of water.
The 4 reservoirs combined have a capacity of 11.05 tmcft of water.
Due to severely hot summer season and the failure to receive water from the Krishna river Kandaleru dam near Nellore, Andhra Pradesh as per the share agreement between the 2 states, the wate4r level in all the 4 reservoir is presently very low.
As on yesterday (Sunday, 11th September), the water level in Poondi reservoir was 22.64’. It has only 545 mcft of water. Puzhal reservoir has 3.89’ of water holding 565 mcft. Chembarambakkam reservoir has 12.25’ holding 1067 mcft of water. Cholavaram res4ervoir has 0.41’ holding only 67 mcft of water.
So, against the total capacity to hold 11.05 tmcft water,,the current capacity is only 2.12 tmcft.
Tamil; Nadu State government PWD (Public Works department) officials had earlier written a letter to the Andhra State government to release Krishna river water from the Kandaleru dam as per the water sharing agreement between the 2 states. However, Andhra state government officials rejected informing that the water level is very low.
This situation has led to the possibility of acute shortage of drinking water in the Chennai Metro City.
