Andhra Pradesh (AP) farmers are stealing your insurance policy.
As per an agreement, Chennai gets 12 tmcft of Krishna water — a resource the city banks on in emergencies — from Kandaleru every year in installments of four tmcft during the summer and eight tmcft after monsoon. But most of it does not reach the destination.
This year, AP began releasing part of the first installment after CM J. Jayalalithaa made a request in March.
It released 600 cusecs on May 20 and 22, but by the time the water reached Chennai it had been reduced to a trickle of around 90 cusecs.
Part of the water was lost to evaporation but a chunk was stolen by farmers in AP.
The routine theft is of particular concern this year since the monsoon has been delayed and reservoirs are fast depleting.
The four city reservoirs — Chembarambakkam, Cholavaram, Poondi and Puzhal — jointly stored only 4.053 tmcft Sunday against the 5.4 tmcft the same day last year.
If it does not rain by October, the city may suffer.
Water resource organisation (WRO) officials said less than 10 per cent of the water released from Kandaleru reservoir was realised here, thanks to illegal pumping by farmers along the Krishna canal in AP for irrigation.
They said the indiscriminate pumping had not come down despite taking up the issue with AP officials.
Concerned TN officials have now written to their Andhra counterparts seeking to curb the farmers along the 151-km canal.
Maintenance of the canal early this year considerably reduced pilferage of Krishna water en route to Chennai. The upkeep also helped WRO officials to accurately gauge line loss.