Pages

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Chennai to get 5th reservoir before north-east monsoon in October 2015

As the city braces for a severe water crisis, the government is pushing hard to provide it yet another drinking water reservoir - at Thervoikandigai in Thiruvallur district- before the onset of the northeast monsoon in October 2015

The new reservoir will be the fifth to cater to the growing drinking water needs of the city and will be able to store additional water received from the Kandaleru reservoir, Andhra Pradesh apart from rainwater in its catchment areas. 

The reservoir will have the capacity to hold 1,000 mcft, when filled twice. This is equal to the amount of water drawn from the existing reservoirs to meet the city’s monthly water requirements.

 At present, the combined storage capacity of the four reservoirs in Red Hills, Cholavaram, Poondi and Chembarambakkam is 11,057 million cubic feet (mcft).

The water body, an ambitious scheme of the AIADMK government, is expected to be filled up in the run-up to the assembly polls. The reservoir is to be formed by linking the existing water bodies in Thervoikandigai and Kannankottai villages, about 14 km from Uthukottai near the Andhra-Tamil Nadu border.

Work on the 330 crore project is in full swing, with the formation of a 5.45km long earthen bund. "We are racing against time to complete the work to see first filling before northeast monsoon," said a government official. Work is also progressing on an 8.3 km long channel linking Kandaleru-Poondi canal and the new reservoir via Thamaraikuppam, Senjee Agaram and Pallikuppam villages. The canal will take Krishna water, whenever Andhra releases it, into the reservoir. Once completed, the reservoir could get filled up twice a year, thereby creating a cumulative storage capacity of one thousand million cubic feet, which translates into a month's drinking water supply to the city.

No comments:

Post a Comment