CHENNAI: With the summer at its peak, the water storage in the five lakes in the city - Poondi, Cholavaram, Redhills and Chembarambakkam and Kannankottai Thervoykandigai - has come down below 60%.
As per the data available with the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Metro Water) that supplies more than 1,100 million litres of water in city per day, the five lakes has a combined storage of 6,882 million cubic feet (mcft) against their total capacity of 11,757 mcft (58.54%) of their storage capacity.
Of the five lakes, Poondi lake is 43.33% full with 1,400 mcft of water. Redhills and Chembarambakkam lakes are 61.52% and 81.34% full with 2,030 mcft and 2,965 mcft respectively. While Kannankottai Thervoykandigai lake has 72.60% storage against its total capacity of 500 mcft, Cholavaram lake has 11.47% of its actual capacity of 1081 mcft.
On the same day last year, the lakes had a combined storage of 7,062 mcft, which was 180 mcft higher than the present storage.
Meanwhile, the Metro Water supplied 1126 million litres per day (MLD) on Thursday.
A Metro Water official said little over 1 TMC (1,000 mcft) of water per month is required to ensure the supply of above 1,000 million litres every day.
Meanwhile,the Water Resources Department (WRD) has requested the Andhra Pradesh government to release Krishna river water from Kandaleru dam to Poondi lake from May 25.
“We are awaiting a reply from the Andhra Pradesh government. But, the water will be released as per the agreement,” a WRD official said.
The official added the department has sought at least 500 cusecs to be received at the Zero Point on the state border and the water will be released until the city lakes are full.
Krishna water was last released from the Kandaleru reservoir in February, reaching the Zero Point on the state border on February 25. The release is part of the Telugu Ganga Project agreement between Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
Since February 25, Tamil Nadu has received about 1 TMC of water. However the release was stopped mid-April, citing the maintenance work in Kandaleru - Poondi Canal (KP Canal). Now, the works have been completed.
Earlier, the Water Resources Department (WRD) had diverted water stored in Poondi lake to Redhills and Chembarambakkam lakes that are terminal reservoirs to keep the Poondi lake relatively empty since Krishna Water will reach Poondi first.
Andhra Pradesh government, on May 6, released water from Kandaleru dam, which was first expected to reach Tamil Nadu. “But, the release was for agriculture within AP,” the official added.