AP to release 800 cusecs of Krishna Water to quench the thirst of Chennai

Water arrived just in nick of time when the reservoirs were drying up, say Metro Water officials
C Shivakumar
Chennai:
Chennai which was staring at a water crisis heaved a sigh of relief
after Andhra Pradesh resumed Krishna Water supply to the city on
Monday evening.
Water resources department (WRD) and Metro Water officials told
Express that at around 4.10 pm, 200 cusecs of Krishna Water was
discharged from the Kandaleru reservoir in Andhra Pradesh. 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.
“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 Andhra Pradesh.
“Although the work has yet to be completed, the state would get 800
cusecs of Krishna water per day,” said Water Resources Department
officials.
Harried Metro Water officials heaved a sigh of relief as they were
working under enormous pressure as the reservoirs were slowly drying
up.  “Currently, we have only 1.45 tmc feet of water of which .8tmc
feet is dead storage. So the city only has .6 tmc 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 said
the water arrived just in nick of time when the city was staring at
crisis. “This will ensure that we have adequate water for the next two
to three months,” the official said.
Interestingly, Metro Water has been preparing contingency plans to
survive the crisis and has been eyeing to get 50 mld of water from
Neyveli starting from first week of July.