The city will receive its share of Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh in a few days. Water was released from the Kandaleru reservoir in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday to cater to the city’s summer water needs.
At present, the five major reservoirs that largely feed drinking water to the city have a total storage of 7.4 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft), which is nearly 63.24% of their capacity as on Thursday. About 162 million litres of water (mld) is being conveyed from the Veeranam tank daily to augment water supply in the city. The current storage in the reservoirs in and around the city will last for six months.
Officials of the Water Resources Department (WRD) said about 500 cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water was discharged from the Kandaleru reservoir on Thursday. The water release would be steadily stepped up to 1,500 cusecs in the coming days.
“We have requested Andhra Pradesh authorities to release 500 cusecs. It will translate to 1.25 tmcft of water every month. Storage in the reservoirs could be built by another 4 or 5 tmcft before the onset of the northeast monsoon,” said an official. The Kandaleru reservoir has a storage of nearly 42 tmcft, which is sufficient to continue water release to the city.
The city’s daily water supply can be sustained till the summer of next year with the receipt of Krishna water for four months even if the monsoon fails to bring adequate rainfall, the WRD official noted. Chennai is now being supplied with 1,026.24 mld of water and of this, nearly 961.91 mld is being provided to domestic consumers.
It may be recalled that the WRD had earlier sought water release to be put off till May as the waterbodies were filled to the brim in January when the city was due to receive Krishna water.
The WRD plans to continue the construction of concrete lining in the Kandaleru-Poondi (K-P) Canal till the water reaches Uthukottai, the canal’s Tamil Nadu border. It is crucial to facilitate free flow of water and minimise loss, an official said.
Nearly 65% of the work has been completed between the 3.8 km and 10 km point of the K-P Canal. “We will resume work on the remaining 2-km stretch after the water release is stopped,” the official added.
According to the WRD officials, nearly ₹1,026.57 crore has been remitted so far to Andhra Pradesh as the project and maintenance cost of the total estimated cost of nearly ₹1,200.48 crore as per the Krishna Water Supply project agreement.
