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Krishna water to city likely to be delayed

March 16, 2012 10:57 am | Updated July 08, 2016 11:44 am IST - CHENNAI

Kancheepuram,03/03/2012:For City:A view of the Poondi reservoir, which is used to store Krishna water received from Andhra Pradesh. Photo:B_Jothi Ramalingam.

The city will have to wait for a few more weeks for Krishna water. A siphon in the Kandaleru Poondi canal within the Andhra Pradesh limits has suffered damage, which will delay the supply to Chennai.

Chennai is due to receive four thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) of water that is normally given between January and April under the Krishna water supply project. (As per the agreement between Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, Chennai would be supplied with a total of 12 tmcft, of which eight tmcft would be provided between July and October.)

According to the Water Resources Department officials, Krishna water released from the Kandaleru reservoir flows into the Kandaleru-Poondi canal for a distance of 152.7 km in the Andhra Pradesh limit. The siphon, which regulates flow in the canal constructed across a natural water course at the 117 km point near Varadapalayam, was damaged during the recent rains.

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On Thursday, a team of WRD officials left for Andhra Pradesh to assess the situation and discuss with their counterparts in the neighbouring state about the problem. Water released into the canal may not reach Chennai as there are chances that it would get diverted into the natural course owing to the damage in the siphon. Though it may take a longer period for the repair, officials in the neighbouring state have promised to make temporary arrangements to enable free flow of water to Chennai in a fortnight, an official said.

At present, the four reservoirs in Poondi, Cholavaram, Red Hills and Chembarampakkam, which largely meet the city's drinking water needs, has storage of 7,600 million cubic feet. This is about one tmcft less than the storage that the water bodies had the same time last year.

While officials of Metrowater hope to tide over the water demand during the summer months with the available resources, additional storage from Kandaleru reservoir would help step up storage till the onset of northeast monsoon. On an average, Metrowater draws one tmcft a month from the reservoirs to supply about 810 million litres of water a day.

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Meanwhile, the request for water by the Tamil Nadu government is being processed at the neighbouring state. “There is ample resource in Kandaleru reservoir and there would not be any hitches in providing water to the city,” said an official.

There was a delay in water discharge for the second spell this year as the city received water for the first spell (July to October) till November. Chennai has so far realised nearly 59 tmcft of Krishna water since the project was implemented in 1996.

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