Kumari Palany & Co

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Sluice gates of major reservoirs opened now due to filling up

Posted on: 05/Dec/2020 9:19:54 AM
RedHills reservoir is another major source of drinking water supply to Chennai city and this is now making news.

On Friday, 4th December, the shutters of RedHills reservoir was opened and it grabbed many eyeballs. As the inflow was good, initially 500 cusecs of water was released from RedHills reservoir.

The water level in this reservoir touched 19.89 ft that was 1 ft short of the maximum level. This made the WRD release water from the Red Hills reservoir yesterday. As against the capacity of 3.3tmcft, the storage level was 2.99tmcft yesterday. This made the Tiruvallur collector to issue flood alert for the downstream places.

The group of tanks upstream had a surplus of water plus and more inflow was coming to the water body. This made the WRD release water. There are various groups of tanks that feed the RedHills reservoir and these are Morai, Pammadhukulam, Vellanoor, Iyyaneri and Pothur.

It must be taken into account that the water released into the 13.5km long surplus course travels through areas like Grandline, Naravarikuppam, Vadaperumbakkam, Manjambakkam and Kosappur and then joins Kosasthalaiyar River and Buckingham Canal near Sadayankuppam. 

Truth is that the course would be able to carry 7500 cusecs of water safely. Around 6pm, the water level was increased to 650 cusecs and it would be reduced by the morning of Saturday. This was according to an official belonging to WRD.

It must be noted that Sholavaram Lake which is largely dry has been used as a buffer and this has now got storage of 650 mcft against a total of1081 mcft. The discharge was adjusted to maintain the level as the inflow into the Poondi and Chembarambakkam reservoirs increased yesterday.

It is worthy to mention here that the level of Chembarambakkam continued to be maintained at 22.45 feet that was 1.5ft short of full reservoir level. Around 6pm in the evening, about 3000 cusecs of water was released into the Adyar River. Information collected was that an inflow of 5341 cusecs into Poondi reservoir was discharged into Kosasthalaiyar. It is now said that the surplus is yet to reach the tail end of the river near Ennore creek.