Water outflow from Poondi reservoir decreased to 23,000 cusecs

On Friday, as the water inflow raised to 42,000 cusecs, the discharge has also increased to 35,000 cusecs due to the water level increased as the state received intense rainfall and inflow from other reservoirs such as Ammapalli dam in Andhra Pradesh was the major reason for the raise in the water level in the Poondi reservoir. However, with the state receiving less rainfall during the last 24 hours, both the inflow and outflow came down in the water body.

“As the rainfall has decreased, currently the water body is receiving 23,000 cusecs of water from Saturday morning, so the water released from the reservoir reduced to 23,000 cusecs of water. Depending on the rainfall in the catchment the water will be discharged from the water body gradually,” said a senior WRD official.

As soon as more water was released from the reservoir, the department issued notice to the district collectors to evacuate the people living in the low-lying areas from over 30 areas including Manali, Manali New Town, Ennore, Sadayankuppam, and Kosasthailaiyar coastal areas.

On the other hand, the outflow from two major reservoirs – Puzhal Lake and Chembarambakkam dam has also decreased. Around 1,250 cusecs of water receiving at Puzhal Lake where the discharge reduced from 500 cusecs to 200 cusecs from Saturday. Similarly, the Chembarambakkam dam has been getting 2,000 cusecs, so even the outflow from here has decreased to 250 cusecs from 500cusecs of water.

“We didn't receive rainfall for the past two days, so the inflow and outflow has come down. The two water bodies are having enough storage capacity, as of now, when there is intense rainfall again in the city the water level will increase in the catchment. Only when the storage in the water bodies is full, we will release the water accordingly,” said the official.