A thirsty city staring at water shortage can heave a sigh of relief as the much-anticipated Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh is finally on its way to Chennai.
Water released from the Kandaleru reservoir on Friday evening will travel nearly 155 km in the Kandaleru Poondi canal to reach Tamil Nadu.
“It will take six days for the water to reach the Poondi reservoir where it will be stored and then, supplied to Chennai households,” said an official of the Water Resources Department.
The Andhra Pradesh authorities released a volume of 500 cubic feet per second (cusecs) from the reservoir for the city.
“We expect to receive about 300 cusecs initially. This will be enough to support the drawal of 300 cusecs daily from the city reservoirs to provide drinking water,” said an official.
The department expects that the volume of water released will be increased in a week. At a time when the water level in city reservoirs is fast-depleting for want of rains, Krishna water is vital in building up storage and preventing a severe water crisis.
At present, Chennai Metrowater is providing 587 million litres a day from existing water sources.
According to the agreement between Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, Chennai must be given 8,000 million cubic feet of water, which will be enough for eight months of water supply, between July and October.