WRD to seek Krishna water discharge by mid-April to meet Chennai’s needs

WRD plans to request Krishna water discharge from Andhra Pradesh to meet Chennai's summer needs amid ample reservoir storage.

The Water Resources Department (WRD) plans to request Andhra Pradesh for Krishna water discharge by mid-April to meet Chennai’s needs this summer. The department had deferred request till now owing to ample storage available in the city reservoirs.

As on Thursday, the five reservoirs, including Red Hills and Chembarambakkam, have a storage of 9,345 million cubic feet (mcft), which is nearly 79.4% of their total capacity. This is nearly 743 mcft more than the storage in the water bodies on the same day last year.

Officials of the WRD said the department would seek Krishna water release from Kandaleru reservoir to ensure sufficient resources to meet summer demand. The Kandaleru reservoir has a comfortable storage of nearly 51,000 mcft to discharge water for city’s requirement.

The move comes as part of the inter-State agreement under Krishna Water Supply project to ensure adequate supply amid rising demand. The agreement stipulates water release in two spells: July to October and January to April. Chennai has to be provided 4,000 mcft during January and April.

“There have been occasions when the Andhra Pradesh authorities have provided water out of schedule too. We have received water in Chennai in June and November too,” said an official. The storage in Poondi reservoir, which is the prime storage point for Krishna water, now remains nearly 86%. However, it is expected to reduce as summer progresses.

At present, Chennai is being supplied with 1,065 million litres of water a day (mld). Of this, 1,013 mld is being provided for domestic consumption alone. The work to improve some of the vulnerable portions of Kandaleru Poondi canal would help in smooth flow of water into the State’s border in Tiruvallur district.

Officials noted the department had remitted ₹100 crore towards the Krishna Water Supply project and maintenance cost during November last year. It had remitted about ₹1,100 crore since the project implementation in 1996.