Andhra Pradesh resumed Krishna water supply to Chennai on Monday evening, giving a major relief to the city which was staring at a water crisis with reservoirs going dry.Water Resources Department (WRD) and Metro Water officials told Express that at around 4.10 pm, 200 cusecs of Krishna water was
released from the Kandaleru reservoir in the neighbouring state.The water is expected to reach the inter-State border of the Kandaleru-Poondi canal at Uthukottai on Thursday night or Friday morning before reaching Poondi reservoir near Chennai.
“We will be getting 800 cusecs of water a day from Kandaleru reservoir. This could gradually be increased to 1,000 cusecs,” a WRD official said.Krishna water supply to the city was stopped on April 10 to facilitate repair work on the damaged portion of the Kandaleru-Poondi canal at Ubbalamadugu in AP.
“Although the work has yet to be completed, the state would get 800 cusecs of Krishna water per day,” a WRD official said.Tense Metro Water officials heaved a sigh of relief as they were working under enormous pressure as the reservoirs were dryingup. “Currently, we have only 1,452 mc feet of water of which 800 mc feet is dead storage. So the city has just 600 mc feet of water to cater to Chennai’s thirst before the arrival of north-east monsoon,” a Metro Water official said.
Giving credit to Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa for taking necessary steps so that the city doesn’t go thirsty, Metro Water officials saidthe water arrived just in nick of time when the city was staring at a crisis. “This will ensure that we have adequate water for the next two to three months,” the official said. Metro Water has been preparing contingency plans to survive the crisis and has been eyeing to get 50 mld of water fromNeyveli starting from first week of July.