With the water crisis worsening in the city, the State government has decided to seek the release of Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh that is due in July. Though the four major reservoirs in the city recorded 4 cm to 9 cm of rainfall till 6 a.m. on Wednesday, it did not translate much into actual inflows except in Chembarambakkam lake. The reservoir in Chembarambakkam that registered the highest volume of rainfall of 9 cm received an inflow of 253 cusecs.
The combined storage of the four lakes went up to 103 million cubic feet on Wednesday, which is nearly 25 mcft more than the previous day’s storage.
Such inflow is equal to one day’s volume of drawal for city supply.
Sources in the Water Resources Department said as the reservoirs are bone dry, it would take three or four more days of similar spells of rain over the catchment areas to boost the storage. The murky weather would nevertheless help in reducing evaporation loss.
Meanwhile, the city’s water supply has dwindled to 470 million litres a day. It is in this scenario that the State government has planned to write to the Andhra Pradesh government to provide Krishna water due between July and October. Chennai received only 2,300 mcft of water last year.
Dispute over payment
As per the agreement between Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, Chennai needs to be supplied with a total of 12,000 mcft every year, of which 8,000 mcft would be provided between July and October. According to sources, water release was being delayed this year on grounds of pending payment of Tamil Nadu’s share towards construction and maintenance of the project. Of the total T.N. share of ₹1,130 crore, nearly ₹737 crore has been released. But, Chennai has only received 77,000 mcft of Krishna water since the project implementation in 1996. The city must have received 240 thousand million cubic feet in the past two decades.
