With Poondi reservoir reaching dead storage, Krishna water, on its way to Chennai from Andhra Pradesh (A.P.), will be transferred to other reservoirs.
Water from Kandaleru reservoir was released into the 152-km-long Kandaleru-Poondi canal on Friday, as promised earlier by the A.P. government.
It is expected to touch Poondi reservoir by Tamil New Year’s Day.
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While A.P. authorities have stepped up the discharge to 1,600 cubic feet per second (cusecs) of water, the Water Resources Department (WRD) here expects to receive about 500 cusecs as some quantity may be drawn enroute to meet the drinking water needs of Tirupati.
As Poondi reservoir is nearly dry, storing water there would mean more loss due to evaporation. Hence, the water received will be directly sent to reservoirs in Chembarambakkam and Red Hills.
The timely release of Krishna water comes as a relief to Chennai, facing severe water shortage as storage levels at the primary sources have hit rock bottom and will last only till mid-June.
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Chennai is supplied with 600 million litres of water a day from other sources such as the desalination plant and the Veeranam tank in Cuddalore district. At present, the city reservoirs have a combined storage of less than 25 per cent of their capacity.
Patrolling
To ensure Krishna water reaches Chennai without much hassle, a joint team of Tamil Nadu and A.P. officials will patrol the canal and prevent illegal drawing of water.
Officials of WRD expect to receive 1,600 million cubic feet of water (mcft) in this spell. During the liaison meeting held in January, the A.P. government had agreed to release 3,000 mcft. However, city received only 1,300 mcft till March 21, after which the supply was suspended.
Meanwhile, WRD has taken up long-pending work to repair the damaged shutters at Poondi reservoir and link canal through which water is distributed to other reservoirs. Repairs costing nearly Rs. 3.5 crore are expected to be completed in a few months.