The Hindu 02.09.2010
Krishna water release for Chennai deferred
K. Lakshmi
CHENNAI: The deadline for the release of Krishna water to the city from the Kandaleru reservoir in Andhra Pradesh has been deferred to next week, according to Water Resources Department officials here.
The water supply was earlier expected to begin in the first few days of September. Officials of the department on Wednesday said the supply is unlikely this week as the Andhra Pradesh government is considering using the water first to meet the demand of Tirupati.
It had agreed to supply Krishna water to Chennai from this month on completion of the repair works at the Kandaleru Poondi canal under its jurisdiction.
At present, the Kandaleru reservoir has storage of 18.14 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) against the capacity of 63 tmcft. Under the agreement, Andhra Pradesh government has to supply 12 tmcft every year. Since the supply began in 1996-97, the maximum that Chennai has got in a year was the 7.01 tmcft in 2009-10.
“We received 4.1 tmcft between September and December last year. The city gets its supply for this spell (between July and October) mostly in September. Water was discharged from the reservoir upstream in August only twice, in 2006 and 2007,” an official said.
The Krishna water would help step up storage in the four reservoirs around Chennai. The rains over the past three months resulted in a considerable increase in storage in the reservoirs.
