A SIGHT TO SAVOUR: The heavy spell of rain in the last four days has improved the storage at the sprawling Chembarambakkam tank, west of Chennai. — PHOTO: A. Muralitharan

CHENNAI : The Public Works Department released water from the Satyamurthi reservoir in Poondi on Wednesday to maintain the water level.

Authorities decided to release water as the level at Poondi has already touched 137 ft, against the full tank level of 140 ft. The water will be diverted to Cholavaram reservoir, which now has a storage of 540 million cubic feet against a capacity of 881 mcft.

The city's reservoirs, which have been receiving a steady inflow due to the heavy rain, are being monitored constantly for potential flooding.

The release of water from the Kandaleru reservoir at Andhra Pradesh has been stopped since Sunday following a request from PWD officials here. Poondi reservoir, the receiving point, already has four months drinking water supply to the city. The inflow into the reservoirs has been restricted to rainwater from catchment areas to minimise risk of flooding.

The reservoirs were replenished quicker during this year's northeast monsoon, because of the storage carried over from last year's monsoon. A PWD official said that the need for Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh would be assessed in January, after taking into account the storage in the reservoirs and the requirement.

If there was another bout of heavy rain, the authorities may have to issue a flood warning for areas around Poondi reservoir, he said.

The storage at other reservoirs was also up. While the storage of Red Hills reservoir stood at 2,216 mcft against its full capacity of 3,300 mcft, Chembarambakkam reservoir has 2,113 mcft of water.

There has been an increase of about 600 mcft of water in the reservoirs at Poondi, Chembarambakkam and Red Hills since October 1.

A senior Metrowater official said the reservoirs still have spare capacity. "We have to decide about the diversion depending on the filling up of the lakes."

Though the city reservoirs had considerable storage, Metrowater still extracted water from Veeranam reservoir. The official said that the treatment plants at Red Hills and Kilpauk did not have the capacity of treating 650 million litres of water daily supplied to the city.

Treated water of 180 mld has to be drawn through pipeline from Veeranam till the 530 mld capacity Chembarambakkam treatment plant became fully functional.

The present storage in the reservoirs is sufficient for a year's drinking water supply, he added.

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