In a couple of days, the storage in the city’s reservoirs will get a boost as Krishna water was released from Andhra Pradesh on Friday.
About 1,500 cubic feet per second (cusecs) was released from the Kandaleru reservoir into the Kandaleru-Poondi Canal for Chennai. Officials of the Water Resources Department (WRD) were present.
After travelling 152 km, the water is likely to reach the Tamil Nadu border at Uthukottai in Tiruvallur district by Monday. It would then travel another 25 km to the Poondi reservoir.
The water discharge is significant because the combined storage of the four primary reservoirs that supply drinking water to the city stand at 3.9 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft), which is 34% of the total capacity of 11.2 tmcft.
Water Resources Department officials said water was being released this time exclusively to meet Chennai’s drinking water needs as there was not much requirement for irrigation or drinking water in areas en route. “We have also requested the Andhra Pradesh authorities to monitor unauthorised tapping of water from the canal...,” said an official.
Though the water release was due in July for the July-October spell, there was a delay because of the low storage in the Kandaleru reservoir. It now stands at 38.5 tmcft.
At a meeting between officials of the two States in August, Chennai was assured of 4 tmcft over two months. “If an average of 800 cusecs flows into the Poondi reservoir, we can get the quantity in two months. More water will be sought depending on the performance of the north-east monsoon. Chennai could get up to 8 tmcft for the spell under the Krishna water supply project,” the official said.
