With Andhra Pradesh releasing the assured quantity of the Krishna water this year, the Water Resources Department (WRD) plans to seek water in a couple of days for the next spell beginning July.
As on Tuesday, Chennai has received 8.05 tmcft. of Krishna water from the Kandaleru reservoir in Andhra Pradesh, since September-end last year. WRD officials said this was one of the highest quantities of the Krishna water received since the launch of the project in 1996. Earlier, the city received 8.19 tmcft of water in 2011-12.
Andhra Pradesh had assured Tamil Nadu of providing 8 tmcft. from Kandaleru reservoir in August last year to meet the drinking water requirements of Chennai.
On Tuesday, water flow into the Kandaleru-Poondi canal at the inter-State border dwindled to a minimum of 18 cusecs (cubic feet per second). Krishna water discharge to the city would be stopped as Poondi reservoir had received the quantity of water that Andhra Pradesh promised last year, officials said.
“We will be able to maintain the water supply in the city till the year-end with the available storage in reservoirs and other sources. The steady flow of Krishna water has helped in maintaining the storage at city reservoirs,” said an official.
Healthy storage
The combined storage at the four reservoirs, including Poondi and Red Hills, stood at 5.1 tmcft. against their capacity of 11.2 tmcft as on Tuesday.
“We consider the period between July and April as the water year. Water release for the next spell is due in July. The department officials will write to their counterparts in A.P. in a couple of days requesting to discharge water from Kandaleru,” said an official.
As per the pact with A.P. since 1996, 12 tmcft. of Krishna water needs to be released in two spells — July to October and January to April.
“We have only 46% of storage in the lakes. If A.P. releases more water, it will help build water level to cater to Chennai’s needs,” the official added.