Water-level at the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) dipped to 62.92 ft at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, the lowest in 68 years.
It was 63.28 ft in 1945, an officer at the Regulation Section (Gauging) of Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Ltd. (CNNL) told The Hindu . The full-reservoir level is 124.8 ft. The inflow was at the rate of 227 cubic feet per second and the outflow was at the rate of 764 cusecs at 6 a.m. on Wednesday.
Drinking water for Bangalore, Mysore, Mandya and Ramanagaram districts is drawn from the reservoir.
These districts need at least 1,200 cusecs a day, he said.
“Water-level was 65 ft on May 10, 2003 and it was 71.54 ft in 2005. According to the statistics available, it dipped to 63.28 ft in 1945,” he said.
Meanwhile, CNNL officials said the water in the reservoir was sufficient to meet the drinking water needs for another 10 days.
“If the situation remains the same, drinking water crisis will worsen by June last week,” Vijay Kumar, Executive Engineer (CNNL), told The Hindu .
However, officials are expecting a good inflow into the reservoir in the coming days as the catchment areas in Madikeri received a good rainfall on Tuesday.
The water-level was 93.63 ft on April 9, 2012 and it rose to 110 ft on June 1, 2012. But to comply with the orders of the Supreme Court and the Cauvery Monitoring Committee, the State government released water to Tamil Nadu on several occasions since September 2012.
