The Andhra Pradesh government has agreed to release two thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) of Krishna water to Tamil Nadu every month, for three months, starting from April.
By the end of June, Tamil Nadu will get six tmcft. In July, one tmcft will be supplied.
The Andhra Pradesh government has come out with this plan to provide seven tmcft to Tamil Nadu so that the drinking water supply in Chennai can be maintained comfortably at a level of around 640 million litres a day (mld) for another six months.
As per the 1983 agreement, Tamil Nadu is to get 12 tmcft from Andhra Pradesh and this can be given in two spells. The Kandaleru reservoir, the terminal storage point of the Krishna river system in Andhra Pradesh, has storage of about 24 tmcft.
Election Commission clearance soughtGiving the details of the discussion held last week between teams of the two States, a senior official said Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary P.K. Mohanty had made it clear to the Tamil Nadu team that his administration, to be on the safer side, would seek the Election Commission’s clearance for the proposed water supply arrangement. As per the proposal, once the Commission’s clearance is obtained, the supply will begin on March 25.
As on Friday, the combined storage of the reservoirs catering to Chennai’s water supply was around 3.3 tmcft which will be sufficient to meet the requirements till July. This year’s saving grace is that the Veeranam tank has been contributing 180 mld to Chennai’s supply whereas, last year, its storage was virtually nil.
Pointing this out, another official said Chennai Metrowater had a contingency plan in place to tackle the supply position.
