To tide over the acute drinking water crisis staring in the face of the city, Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam has written to his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N. Chandrababu Naidu to release of Krishna water to meet the city’s requirements.
In an official letter, Mr. Panneerselvam sought Mr. Naidu’s intervention in the release of Krishna water from Kandaleru reservoir.
“As on January 5, the storage at Kandaleru reservoir was 13.53 tmcft. Therefore, Andhra Pradesh appears to be in a position to release water to Chennai,” Mr. Pannerselvam said.
As per the Inter-State Agreement dated April 18, 1983 and signed between the Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu governments, an annual quantum of 12 tmcft (excluding evaporation loss) should be realised at the Tamil Nadu border.
Water should be released in two spells from Kandaleru reservoir to meet the drinking water needs of Chennai city. Normally, 8 tmcft of water is to be supplied between July and October and another 4 tmcft from January to April. However, a quantum of only 0.99 tmcft was realised at the Tamil Nadu border from October to December 2016, he pointed out.
Tamil Nadu and Chennai are primarily dependent on the north-east monsoon for bulk of the rainfall. In 2016, the north-east monsoon had been highly deficient in the State.
“In Chennai, rainfall was deficient by nearly 57 per cent. Water level in Chennai’s reservoirs is very low and the meagre storage currently available needs to be augmented to meet the drinking water supply over the next few months,” Mr. Pannerselvam said.
Therefore, Tamil Nadu was dependent on the release of Krishna water from the Kandaleru reservoir to partly meet the drinking water requirements of Chennai till July 2017.
“Chennai is critically dependent on the release of Krishna water to manage the difficult situation in which we find ourselves this year,” Mr. Panneerselvam said.
Under these circumstances, he requested Mr. Naidu to instruct the officials to ensure the immediate release of the agreed quantum of water from the Kandaleru reservoir.
