Tamil Nadu Rains: Heavy Showers Fill Chennai’s Reservoirs By 517 MCFT In 24 Hours

After the first monsoon showers, the major reservoirs in Chennai received an inflow of 517 million cubic feet (mcft) from the catchment area on Wednesday, DTNext reported.

Heavy rain in northern coastal and delta districts filled over 180 tanks in these areas to their maximum capacity. Among the reservoirs that supply water to the city, the Poondi reservoir received 800 cusecs of water, with 450 cusecs from the Krishna river and 350 cusecs from local catchment areas.

Red Hills reservoir saw an increase of 281 mcft over the past 24 hours, bringing its storage to 2,326 mcft. Chembarambakkam reservoir's storage rose from 1,223 mcft on Tuesday to 1,286 mcft on Wednesday due to recent rains, the report added.

The Water Resources Department (WRD) has undertaken 180 projects in the Chennai region at a cost of Rs 38.50 crore. Starting in August, 179 of these projects have been completed. The department deployed 200 earthmovers, totaling 80,000 operational hours, and used 1,500 lorries to clear debris and weeds from water bodies and channels, including Otteri Nalla, Puzhal lake, the central Buckingham canal, and Porur lake.

Additional work has been completed to clear blockages and debris from the Adyar, Cooum, and Kosasthalaiyar rivers, along with dredging the Adyar estuary, Kovalam, and Muttukadu. The desilting work in Cooum, Kosasthalaiyar, and Muttukadu was carried out at seven locations, following the directions of Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin.

On Tuesday, nearly 70 locations across Tamil Nadu recorded significant rainfall, with multiple areas reporting rainfall in the double digits in centimeters, according to data from the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC). Cholavaram in Tiruvallur district received the highest rainfall at 30 cm, followed by Red Hills with 28 cm, Avadi with 25 cm, Zone 01 Kathivakkam in Chennai with 23 cm, and Zone 02 D15 Manali in Chennai with 21 cm.