In a bid to step up storage in city reservoirs, the Water Resources Department (WRD) is planning to seek more water from the Kandaleru reservoir, Andhra Pradesh.
This is likely as the State is all set to realise the 3,000 million cubic feet of Krishna water that Andhra Pradesh had promised when supply from the reservoir started last month.
The entry point of the Kandaleru-Poondi canal in Uthukkottai has been receiving a steady inflow of Krishna water since June 23. On Monday, the entry point got nearly 750 cubic feet per second (cusecs) of water. At this rate, it would translate into nearly 60-70 million cubic feet of water daily.
The Poondi reservoir, which is used as the storage point for the water, has so far received 1,800 mcft. This is the highest volume of water received so far in a month since the project was implemented in 1996. According to WRD sources, the volume realised in July is expected to touch 2,000 mcft by this week.
Chennai would get the volume of 3,000 mcft assured by the Andhra Pradesh government by mid-August, given the present rate of inflow into the State's entry point of the KP canal.
As per the agreement between the two States, Chennai has to be provided 8,000 mcft between July and October under the Krishna water supply project. The Kandaleru reservoir now has a storage of 34,000 mcft.
The WRD plans to request the Andhra Pradesh government to continue the discharge for two more months. As against their capacity of 11,000 mcft, the combined storage in the four city reservoirs – Poondi, Cholavaram, Red Hills and Chembarampakkam – is 5,700 mcft as on Monday. This means they can take in around 5,000 mcft more.
