Begin typing your search...
Chennai lakes brim after record rainfall
Even as the continuous downpour brought usual problems like water stagnation and traffic snarls across the city, two-days rain led to an inflow of more than 100 mcft of water to the city lakes overnight.
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
According to Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (Metrowater) data, the five lakes - Poondi, Cholavaram, Redhills, Thervoy Kandigai and Chembarambakkam had 11,097 mc ft of water on Wednesday morning. The storage is 111 mc ft more than the amount of water that these lakes had on Tuesday. One million cubic feet (mc ft) is equal to more than 2.83 crore litres of water. On the same day last year, the lakes had only 5,767 mc ft of water.
It may be noted that the Public Works Department (PWD) had maintained the water level in Poondi lake the same for the last two days despite water from catchment areas and Kandaleru reservoir flowing into the lake by releasing more than 1,000 cusecs at times to prevent damage to the lake. As the water storage in Redhills lake reached 3,249 mc ft of total 3,300 mc ft, excess water was released on Tuesday. Also, water was released from Chembarambakkam lake as the water level crossed 23 feet for the first time since 2015, when the city witnessed one of its worst floods.On Tuesday, the lakes had combined storage of 10,986 mc ft. “As the rains stopped after Wednesday afternoon, the release of water from Redhills lake and Chembarambakkam lake gradually decreased. If the city received continuous rain for another 5 hours with the same intensity, it would have become dangerous,” a PWD source said.
Meanwhile, as many as 821 lakes in Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu districts reached its full capacity after heavy rain on Monday. This is the first time most of the lakes have been filled up after five years. Among the 909 lakes, 821 lakes filled up by 100 per cent, 83 lakes got filled by 75 per cent and only five lakes have water less than 50 per cent.
36 SPOTS IN CITY REPORT WATER STAGNATION
With two days of incessant rain flooding the city’s major roads affecting traffic movement, water stagnation was reported in as many as 36 locations.
According to Chennai Corporation data, of the 36 water stagnated spots, rainwater was removed from 23 places as of Wednesday noon.
“While rainwater from a few roads drained once the rain slowed down, stagnation at low-lying areas were removed using motor pumps. Works are still underway at remaining locations,” a Chennai Corporation official said. The official added that all the water stagnation spots were reported on Tuesday and no new water stagnation was reported on Wednesday. Meanwhile, five trees fell on roads, but the Chennai Corporation removed all the trees to clear roads for traffic movement. As per data, the city had received 123.09 mm rainfall between Tuesday 6 am to Wednesday noon. Of the total rain, 123.05 mm rainfall was recorded between Tuesday 6 am to Wednesday 6 am.
Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash said that water logging had occurred on 161 streets on Tuesday and rainwater receded within a few hours. On Tuesday, the civic body received 34 rain-related complaints and 4 complaints on Wednesday. The civic body data also showed that the city had received 1,038.10 mm rainfall from October 28. During the period, 731 trees had fallen due. In the last two days, the civic body had conducted 355 medical camps, which was attended by 15,203 people.
Chennai to see light showers over next few days
After heavy rains on January 5, Chennai is expected to see less intense spells over the next few days till January 9 as the NorthEast monsoon draws to an end. Chennai has reached the fourth-highest daily rainfall, recorded in Nungambakkam, according to bloggers, and will continue to see on and off rains over the week.According to weather blogger Pradeep John, who runs the page Tamil Nadu Weatherman, the rains marked the fourth-highest amount of rainfall in 24 hours in January in 150 years, with Nungambakkam receiving 84.8 mm of rainfall as on January 6. The highest, recorded on January 15, 1915 at Nungambakkam, was 212.9 mm. Meenambakkam witnessed 126.2 mm of rainfall and in Kelambakkam, a whopping 210 mm of rainfall was recorded. However, as it falls under the Chengalpattu district, the numbers do not count for Chennai.
Visit news.dtnext.in to explore our interactive epaper!
Download the DT Next app for more exciting features!
Click here for iOS
Click here for Android
Next Story
