Krishna water to reach Chennai today

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Water released from Kandaleru reservoir in Andhra Pradesh will reach Tamil Nadu by Friday.

The water has reached 136th km and it has another 16 km to cover as on Thursday evening, senior WRO (water resource organisation) officials said adding that given the pace and quantum of water, it is expected to reach zero point in Ooothukotai before noon on Friday.

As on Thursday evening, about 800 cusecs was being released from Kandaleru reservoir, which currently stores 32.71tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of water.

The four city reservoirs, Poondi, Cholavaram, Puzhal and Chemabarambakkam, which have a joint capacity of 11.057 tmcft currently store only 4.695 tmcft, against 5.981 tmcft of the same day the corresponding year.

Realisation of Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh would be a huge relief to Chennai as the city has another four and half months to manage before the onset of northeast monsoon that accounts for 3/4th of the city’s surface water source.

The average monthly water requirement hovers a touch above the usual 1.2tmcft during the dog days of summer.

Water managers, who predicted the volume of discharge from Kandaleru to be increased further, exuded confidence that they would be able to manage the coming months without acute water crisis as the water realised from AP and currently storage in the city reservoirs would be sufficient.