CHENNAI: With Karnataka recently releasing a part of Tamil Nadu’s share of Cauvery water, Chennai's water crisis may become a tad less severe. Public Works Department officials said the Cauvery water that has reached the Mettur dam in Salem district will soon be released to the Veeranam lake in Cuddalore district and from there supplied to Chennai. This comes at a time when water levels at Veeranam, an important water source for Chennai, are fast decreasing and the water left in the lake is enough only for 20 days.
Chennai usually receives about one thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) from Veeranam in a span of four to five months. If this quantum is received, then officials hope the water will comfortably last to meet the city's demands for the next four months.
“At present, the city is receiving water taken from mines, agriculture wells, quarries and lakes in the city. Combined with this, 0.2 tmcft of water from Veeranam per month is needed to maintain the supply at 525 MLD. If we get more water, one spell will last for nearly four to five months,” said a senior Water Resource Department official.
Previously, the city used to receive a steady supply of 180 million litres a day (MLD) from Veeranam lake. Veeranam was the only steady source of water supply to Chennai in recent years. But as storage at the lake too started dwindling, supply was cut down to 80 MLD a month ago.
Currently, Veeranam has only 0.102 tmcft of water which will be exhausted in another 20 days. Officials said that Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami is likely to arrange the release of one tmcft of water from Veeranam to Chennai, once water from Mettur reaches the lake.
“There is a very good chance that Chennai will get more water from Veeranam. For one tmcft of water to reach Chennai, close to six tmcft needs to be released from Veeranam. In a few days, concerned officials will have a discussion to facilitate the transfer of water once the chief minister gives the nod,” added the official.
But officials are confident that supply from Veeranam will be increased once again to reach the 180 MLD mark as Mettur dam has a good storage of 16 tmcft. “Karnataka has been releasing 9,000 cusecs of water for around two weeks now. Out of this, Mettur is receiving around 8,000 cusecs every day after a loss during transportation. In a week's time, we will receive 2.5 tmcft that has already been released from Biligundlu in Karnataka. This further increases the levels to 18 tmcft,” said a WRD official in charge of Mettur dam.