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.
