Cyclone Jal gives Chennai five days' water

The New Indian Express 09.11.2010

Cyclone Jal gives Chennai five days' water

CHENNAI: It fell trees, led to the death of a passerby on a Chennai road, troubled fishermen by making the seas choppy and disrupted flight services on Sunday. But, there was one thing definitely good about the pouring rains that accompanied Cyclone Jal: it increased storage levels of the lakes and reservoirs that feed the capital’s daily water requirements. In fact, it can roughly meet the city’s thirst for water for more than a week, say officials.

So, how much water did Jal bring in? On Sunday alone, Chennai’s Nungambakkam received 47.3 mm rainfall, while the Airport observatory reported the figure as 44.8 mm. As skies above the city opened up, water levels at the Poondi, Red Hills, Chembarambakkam and Cholavaram reservoirs cumulatively rose by 10.3 per cent — that is, by 173 mcft. The water levels of these storage bodies stood at 2,111, 1,848, 1,539 and 460 mcft respectively. In all, these water bodies received nearly 150 mm rainfall that day.

Well, what exactly is the average water consumption in Chennai? “Every day,” says a senior Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board official, “20 to 22 mcft is drawn from these reservoirs to meet Chennai’s requirement. Now that the water level has risen by more than 100 mcft, it means Jal has met Chennai’s water needs for at least five days.”

Also, in the next few days, more water from the catchment areas would have reached the reservoirs, thereby increasing the total water storage — all of this owing to the cyclone that weakened in the wee hours of Monday, which saw sunshine across northern Tamil Nadu.

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Cyclone Jal gives Chennai five days' water

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