The Chennai Metrowater has been able to manage the summer demand with the help of water supply from the Veeranam tank. Usually, the supply from the waterbody in Cuddalore district dwindles during this month.
For the first time in 10 years, the Veeranam tank is almost full during summer. It has been receiving inflow from other storage points for the past few days.
On Friday, the storage level stood at 1,150 million cubic feet (mcft) against its capacity of 1,465 mcft, said officials of the Chennai Metrowater.
The heavy showers recently helped to step up the storage. During the same period last year, the storage was 77 mcft.
The water level in the four reservoirs of Poondi, Red Hills, Cholavaram and Chembarambakkam from where drinking water is sourced for Chennai remains low. The combined storage of the reservoirs was 5,530 mcft on Friday, less by about 960 mcft than the storage during the corresponding period last year.
Though the showers brought about by cyclonic storm ‘Laila' had brought in 10 days of supply, it was not adequate to fill the reservoirs.
However, the need to purchase water from private agricultural wells to offset the gap did not arise as the supply of 180 million litres daily (mld) to Porur lake from Veeranam continued, said an official.
Krishna water
The officials of the Chennai Metrowater and the Water Resources Department are confident that the daily water supply at the present rate of 600 mld could be sustained till October. A WRD official said that water from the Kandaleru reservoir in Andhra Pradesh is expected to be released from July 1 as per the agreement between the two States under the Krishna water supply project.
“We have received a communication from the officials in Andhra Pradesh about the water release. It could not be released now as evaporation loss and drawal in enroute areas will be more,” said the official.
The State border of Kandaleru-Poondi canal received 2,870 mcft of Krishna water between February and April this year.
