Storage crosses 50% in 620 tanks in Lower Palar
The major reservoirs that supply drinking water to Chennai have also recorded a rise in storage.
CHENNAI: More than 600 tanks in the Lower Palar Basin spread across Chennai and its neighbourhood have crossed half their storage capacity thanks to copious rains in their catchment area in the last 10 days. Of them, 166 tanks have already reached full capacity.
According to the Water Resources Department, out of the 1,022 tanks in Chennai, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Tiruvannamalai, which form the Lower Palar Basin (LPB), 623 already have more than half their capacity storage. These include 186 tanks that have storage ranging from 76% to 99%, and 271 with storage ranging from 51% to 75%.
Chengalpattu, which has 528 tanks, has the most number of tanks that are brimming - 107. Elsewhere in the neighbourhood, 45 out of 381 tanks in Kancheepuram and 8 of the 93 tanks in Tiruvannamalai have also filled up. In Chennai, 6 of the 16 tanks have reached full storage.
The major reservoirs that supply drinking water to Chennai have also recorded a rise in storage. The water level stands at 86.09% of the full capacity at Chembarambakkam, the biggest of them all, while it is 84.24% in the case of Puzhal. The latest and smallest, Thervoy Kandigai, has 87.20% of the full capacity of 500 million cubic feet (mcft).
In the case of Cholavaram, the storage now stands at 67.44%, while it is 58.22% in Poondi and 74.04% in Veeranam. With rains expected in the region in the coming days, the water level in the tanks are likely to rise.
