Krishna water to bolster Chennai’s summer water supply

Krishna water was released from Andhra Pradesh on Monday to aid Chennai in meeting its summer drinking water demand. The city is likely to receive water at the entry point in Tiruvallur district by Thursday morning.

Though city reservoirs are nearly full this month, the Krishna supply will help balance storage and regulate daily withdrawal, noted the Water Resources Department (WRD). The discharge from the Kandaleru reservoir in A.P. followed a representation from the WRD seeking release for the current spell.

“We have asked to release 500 cubic feet per second of water (cusecs) to enable storage of a minimum of 1,000 million cubic feet (mcft) by mid-March. Water is likely to reach the city faster as the canal bed is wet,” said a WRD official.

The water discharge is part of the inter-State agreement under Krishna Water Supply Project, which stipulates water release in two spells: July- October and January-April. Chennai has to be provided with 4,000 mcft of Krishna water between January and April. However, the WRD had earlier deferred the request as the reservoirs in Tiruvallur district were full post-monsoon and lacked storage space.

While there is a demand in water for irrigation and drinking water enroute, the A.P. authorities have assured to release additional quantum of water to offset the withdrawal by localities along the canal, said WRD officials.

The department is expecting to receive Krishna water for nearly two months before the A.P. authorities begin annual maintenance work of the Kandaleru Poondi canal in its jurisdiction.

Currently, the five major reservoirs feeding drinking water to Chennai, including Chembarambakkam and Red Hills, have a combined storage of 9,836 mcft, which is nearly 83.6% of their capacity. Though Poondi reservoir, which is the prime storage point of Krishna water is nearly 98.61% full, inflow would be diverted to other major water bodies from where it would be drawn for distribution.

On average, about 400 cusecs are being drawn daily from Red Hills and Chembarambakkam for city supply. Officials noted that Chennai is well placed to meet its drinking water needs this year, given the sufficient storage in the reservoirs. Krishna water and Veeranam supply is expected to augment steady supply during peak summer.

Chennai Metrowater now supplies nearly 1,212 million litres of water daily (mld) to the city and of this, nearly 1,166 mld is being supplied to domestic consumers.