Discharge from Puzhal lake stepped up due to downpour

As Chennai and its suburbs received heavy rains for the past two days, the Water Resources Department (WRD) increased the outflow from Puzhal lake to 3,000 cusecs of water on Saturday. Meanwhile, the water discharge from Poondi and Chembarambakkam reservoirs was reduced following decrease in inflow from catchment areas.

“As the inflow decreased from Poondi reservoir to Puzhal lake last week the shutter was closed. Now the city and its suburb received heavy rains for the past two days. On Friday, we were releasing 1,500 cusecs of water, as the inflow increased to 2,175 cusecs, the water discharge had also been increased up to 3,000 cusecs. The current water level had reached 21.11 feet, ” said a senior WRD official (Red Hills).

The official said that when the water discharge was 1,500 cusecs, they issued notice to the district collectors to evacuate the people living in the low-lying areas as the water inflow and outflow have been increasing gradually.

On the other hand, the water discharge from Poondi and Chembarambakkam reservoirs had reduced. Only a limited amount of water is released and there is no current flood alert warning to the people.

“We had stopped releasing water from Poondi reservoir on Friday, but as the water inflow surged the shutters were opened on Saturday. Currently 1,100 cusecs of water is received from the catchment covering rivers, streams and Ammapalli dam in Andhra Pradesh. As of now 744 cusecs of water is discharged, ” said a senior WRD official.

Similarly, the outflow from the Chembarambakkam dam had also come down to 1,000 cusecs as only 1,500 cusecs of water is received as inflow. On Friday, the reservoir recorded an inflow of 2,700 cusecs of water, subsequently 2,000 cusecs discharged. Now, the water level in the dam had reached 23 feet.