Even Cyclone Fengal's fury fails to fill Poondi reservoir that supplies water to Chennai

CHENNAI: Though intense rain lashed Chennai and neighbouring districts due to Cyclone Fengal, Poondi reservoir has not received enough water in the catchment area. So, Chennai has been receiving 400 cusecs of Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh for storing in the reservoir.

“On September 18, the Andhra Pradesh government released 1,400 cusecs of Krishna water from Kandeluru dam. At least 400 cusecs water has been discharged to Poondi reservoir currently. Though there was heavy rain and many waterbodies reached their maximum storage capacity, there was no proper inflow in the catchment area of the reservoir,” said a senior WRD official.

“We’ve even stopped discharging water to Chembarambakkam and Red Hills reservoirs recently. It still has a capacity of 1.5 TMC as of now, so we have been receiving 400 cusecs of Krishna water from the Kandeluru dam,” he added.

In addition, Andhra Pradesh has also been witnessing heavy rains for the last few days. So, it’s expected to further reduce the discharge to the city to ensure the safety of canals during the monsoon. As of December 2, at least 1.6 TMC of Krishna water has been released.

Also Read: Cyclone Fengal: WRD issues for flood alerts to Sathanur reservoir

“If the Poondi reservoir reaches its maximum capacity, we’ll request the neighbouring government to stop discharging the water. Since, we don’t have adequate water in the dam, we’re making sure to store enough of it to provide drinking water supply to the city especially in the summer,” added the official.