Southwest monsoon showers help key reservoirs in Tamil Nadu reach 78 percent capacity

CHENNAI: Farmers in the state have a reason to rejoice as most reservoirs in Tamil Nadu are brimming to capacity, thanks to the continuous southwest monsoon showers over the last few days.

Owing to this, all the reservoirs in the four main districts of Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruchy, and Madurai are filled up to 78 per cent of their capacity, according to a Daily Thanthi report.

The total capacity of reservoirs in Tamil Nadu is 224.297 TMC. As the water level of the lakes are rapidly increasing due to rains, as of Monday, the water capacity in these reservoirs reached 174.579 TMC.

Compared to the water capacity in these reservoirs at the same time last year, which was at 36.87 percent, it has now doubled and gone up to 78 percent this year. This would be more than sufficient for agriculture and drinking water purposes, officials said.

Notably, the Mettur dam which has a total capacity of 120 TMC has recorded 93.47 TMC this year, compared to last year's 24.76 TMC.

Similarly, the water level in the Bhavanisagar dam has gone up from last year's 17.72 TMC to 24.77 TMC this year.

The water capacity at the Amaravati reservoir has risen from 1.94 TMC last year to 3.93 TMC this year while the Mullaperiyaar dam has a current capacity of 5 TMC, when compared to its 2.91 TMC capacity last year.

Also, the Vaigai's capacity has increased from 1.82 TMC to 2.96 TMC this year while the Papanasam reservoir has tripled its water capacity from last year.

Similarly, reservoirs in Manimutharu, Pechipaarai, Solaiyaar, Parambikulam, Aaliyar, and Thirumurthi have doubled or tripled their previous year's water levels while the Perunchaani reservoir's capacity has gone up by 10 times from last year's figures.

Chennai's drinking water supply mainly comes from the Poondi, Thervoy Kandigai, Sozhavaram, Puzhal, Veeranam, and Chembarambakkam reservoirs. They also store water that is released from Andhra Pradesh under the Krishna River water pact. However, since repair works are under way at the Poondi reservoir, adequate water storage has not been possible during this season.

Following the recent rains, Poondi, Puzhal, and Veeranam reservoirs have recorded water levels of 160 cubic feet, 95 cubic feet and 1.4 TMC, respectively. Out of this, 1,424 cubic feet of water has been opened for drinking water purposes.

Similarly, 127 cubic feet from Poondi, 12 cubic feet from Sozhavaram, 224 cubic feet from Puzhal, 15 cubic feet from Thervoy Kandigai, and 137 cubic feet of water from Chembarambakkam is used to fulfill the drinking water needs of the city.

"With the existing 5.2 TMC water in all the reservoirs, we can meet the city's drinking water needs for over 5 months," said a senior water resources department official.

Meanwhile, experts have noted that Tamil Nadu has received around 4 per cent increased rainfall this season, gollowing which the state has recorded a summer rain level of 15 cm as opposed to last year's 12 cm, marked between March to May.

After the monsoon season began in June, the state has seen a 49 percent increase in its rainfall rate, owing to various factors like the change in wind patterns and humidity.