The inflow of Krishna water into city reservoirs reduced drastically on Monday as the water bodies in Andhra Pradesh have run short of resources. However, this summer may not be hard for Chennaiites as there is adequate storage to maintain water supply till August end, note officials of Chennai Metrowater.
On Monday, Tamil Nadu’s entry point of Kandaleru Poondi canal received only 110 cusecs or about 3,100 litres of water flowing per second. The flow had dwindled steadily from 600 cusecs last month. Krishna water may be supplied for another week to Chennai.
Officials of the Water Resources Department said the water level at Kandaleru reservoir, Andhra Pradesh, from where Poondi reservoir gets water, has nearly touched dead storage with 6,800 million cubic feet (mcft) against its capacity of about 68,000 mcft. Chennai has received 2,160 mcft of Krishna water since January 1. This is equal to nearly three months of drinking water supply to the city and has helped boost the storage in the water bodies till now.
“Even if they stop water release in next couple of days, we’ll get the water in the KP canal for a few more days,” an official said.
Meanwhile, Chennai Metrowater is transferring water from Poondi reservoir to Red Hills from where it will be treated and supplied to residents. “The water body in Poondi is more of a storage point. It is enough if it has a storage of 200 mcft. We are transferring water to minimise evaporation loss and boost storage in Red Hills reservoir,” said an official of Metrowater.
Dip in Veeranam supply
The dip in supply from Veeranam tank in Cuddalore district is a setback. Officials note that about 100 million litres of water a day is being transported to Chennai. This can continue for only another two or three days, he says.
Metrowater hopes to tackle the demand, particularly during summer, with the available resources in reservoirs and two desalination plants. “We have a comfortable storage in reservoirs now compared to same day last year when we had only 14% storage,” the official said.
Metrowater plans to revive supply of 70 mld from borewells in Paravanar river belt once the drawal from Veeranam tank is suspended. The option of tapping water from smaller water bodies other than Porur lake has been put on the back burner due to poor water quality in them.
Chennai is being provided piped water supply on alternate days for two years now. However, water supply has been improved from 450 mld to 650 mld now and the same volume may continue till the onset of Northeast monsoon, officials added.
