Water storage in Chennai touches highest level since 1954

Chennai, Jan 7 (UNI) The storage level in the reserviors across the city has touched the highest level since 1954.

According to the Chennai Metrowater records, the combined storage in the three reservoirs -- Poondi, Cholavaram and Red Hills -- was 7,327 million cubic feet (mcft) as on January 6, 2008.

This was the highest cumulative storage recorded since 1954 as per existing records, a Metrowater official here today said.

Red Hills and Cholavaram Reservoirs were filled to capacity.

The recent rainfall and sustained water release from Andhra Pradesh under the Telugu Ganga Project for the past three years contributed to the positive development.

The city gets 645 million litres of water a day as daily supply, the official added.

The levels would be carefully monitored and water discharged if fresh inflows contributed to increase in storage.

On December 23, 2007, the storage in the three reservoirs touched 7,201 mcft, beating the earlier record of 7,137 mcft on December 31, 2005, when the city experienced flooding in several areas following heavy rainfall.

Before that, the maximum storage was in January 1997, when the figure was 7,040 mcft.

The combined storage level of the four reservoirs (the last being Chembarambakkam) also touched the highest in the past seven years at 10,416 mcft on January 5, 2008, he pointed out.

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