CHENNAI: Heavy rainfall over the past two days has increased the combined storage in Chennai’s five principal drinking water reservoirs by 237 million cubic feet (mcft), from 3,949 mcft on October 16 to 4,186 mcft on October 18, according to Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Metro Water) data.
The five reservoirs-Poondi, Red Hills, Cholavaram, Chembarambakkam and Kannankottai-Thervoykandigai — together recorded an increase of 197 mcft on Sunday compared with the previous day, taking the combined storage from 3,989 mcft on October 17 to 4,186 mcft on October 18. On the same the previous year, the lakes had 8628 mcft.
Red Hills recorded the highest increase, with its storage rising by 111 mcft in a day, from 1,926 mcft to 2,037 mcft. The reservoir received an inflow of 1,485 cusecs, while its outflow stood at 196 cusecs.
Poondi and Chembarambakkam each recorded an increase of 39 mcft. Poondi’s storage rose from 358 mcft to 397 mcft, with an inflow of 980 cusecs and an outflow of 530 cusecs. Chembarambakkam’s storage increased from 1,351 mcft to 1,390 mcft, with an inflow of 655 cusecs and an outflow of 203 cusecs.
Cholavaram recorded an increase of 8 mcft, taking its storage from 122 mcft to 130 mcft. It received an inflow of 102 cusecs, while the outflow was eight cusecs.
Kannankottai-Thervoykandigai remained unchanged at 232 mcft, with an inflow of 20 cusecs and an outflow of 18 cusecs.
The combined storage of the five reservoirs currently stands at around 35.6% of their total capacity of 11,757 mcft. Red Hills is at 61.73% of its capacity, followed by Kannankottai-Thervoykandigai at 46.4%, Chembarambakkam at 38.13%, Poondi at 12.29% and Cholavaram at 12.03%.
