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Chennai, Oct 22 (IANS) Amid continuing heavy rains across the Chennai region, the Water Resources Department (WRD) on Wednesday issued a high alert for residents living along the banks of Adyar and Kosasthalaiyar rivers as the discharge of excess water from the Chembarambakkam and Poondi reservoirs increased significantly to ensure dam safety.
At Chembarambakkam lake in Kanchipuram district, the outflow was increased to 500 cubic feet per second (cusec) from 10 am, higher than the precautionary release of 100 cusecs initiated on October 21. The inflow into the reservoir, which was 2,170 cusecs at 6 am, increased rapidly after overnight rain, officials said.
The lake, which has a full capacity of 3,645 million cubic feet (mcft) and maximum depth of 24 feet, recorded a storage level of 20.84 feet (2,815 mcft), up from 18.52 feet last week.
WRD engineers said the release is part of standard flood management protocol to keep the level within a safe limit of 21 feet. Residents of low-lying areas including Sirukalathur, Kavanur, Kundrathur, Tirumudivakkam, Vazhudiyampedu and Tiruneeramalai have been advised to remain alert and move to higher ground as the level of Adyar river is expected to rise.
Along with this, WRD has intensified the flood warning for settlements along Kosasthalaiyar river as Poondi reservoir (Satyamurthy Sagar) has increased the discharge by 2,000 to 4,500 cusecs since Wednesday morning.
The current storage of Poondi reservoir is 2,536 mcft (33.05 ft) against its full capacity of 3,231 mcft (35 ft), with an inflow of 2,910 cusecs from the catchment areas and feeder canals like Kesavaram Dam and Kandaleru Canal.
In the Manali region, villages including Manali New Town and Sadayanakuppam as well as Nambakkam, Thamaraipakkam, Thirukandalam, Athur, Pandikkavanur and Jagannathapuram have been put on high alert.
However, the WRD assured that precautionary water had already been released to maintain adequate buffer capacity in the city’s major reservoirs – Chembarambakkam, Puzhal and Poondi – thereby ensuring that even heavy rainfall would not lead to uncontrolled flooding.
“There is no need for the public to panic as all flood regulation measures are being strictly followed,” the Chennai region’s chief engineer said in a statement.
Coordination has been enhanced between WRD, district administration and disaster response teams to ensure public safety and continuous monitoring of river flows.
–IANS
AL/DPB