Yesterday, 19th September, was the wettest day in Chennai in 2019
Posted on: 20/Sep/2019 9:55:55 AM
This piece of news would surely surprise many Chennai residents now. It is now said that on 19th September 2019 the city of Chennai received the highest amount of rains and this day was the wettest day of 2019 for Chennai.
It must be taken into account that the clouds have been playing hide and seek for the last few days and the clouds present over Chennai and its adjoining areas opened up finally on Wednesday night. This led to Chennai city getting 10.4 cm of rain and Wednesday became the wettest day in Chennai in 2019. It must not be forgotten that Chennai city last recorded 10 cm of rain in 24 hour time period on 25th August in 2011.
The superb information is the core city with an area of 174 sq km received 17400 million liters of water. This water would be enough for a time of 21 days for the Chennai people assuming every drop of rain was saved. It was later mentioned by Mr. Shekar Raghavan of Rain Center that 100% of rain harvesting would not be possible. He added that the residents must focus on the strategies to reduce run-off by at least 60%. He threw light on how the residents let 80% of the water from driveways to canals and sea.
The point to be noted is big apartment buildings have RWH structures and they too collect just the terrace water. Mr. Shekar Raghavan finally hinted about the setting up of recharge wells near the gate os that runoff on the road could enter the recharge wells.
It was pointed out by former IAS officer Shantha Sheela Nair that the Chennai city’s stormwater drains doesn’t help in any recharge of water. She hinted about setting up of percolation pits at 50 m distance across the entire road network. Finally, she mentioned how at least 1.08 lakh structures were needed in Chennai.
