City without Krishna Water supply as Kandaleru reservoir water recedes

Chennai:

Chennai will be without Krishna water after Andhra Pradesh has downed
the shutters of Kandaleru on Monday due to the receding water
levels.

A Water Resources Department official told Express that the water
supply from Kandaleru stopped on September 15 at 6pm.



The water supply stopped as water levels in Kandaleru reached the dead
storage. “We are hoping that water will be released from Somasaila to
Kandaleru,” the official said.



As per norms, the water from Somasaila to Kandaleru is released only
when the levels reach 23tmcft. “Yesterday, the levels reached 25 tmcft
as a result 400 cusecs of water was released to Kandaleru,” the
official said.



He said currently, Kandaleru has only 9 tmc feet of water and once it
reaches 12 tmc feet then the gates of Kandaleru would open for Tamil
Nadu.



He said this year the Andhra officials have assured us of providing
full quantum of water. As per the agreement with Andhra Pradesh, Tamil
Nadu has to get 8 tmc feet of water from this July to August, the PWD
official said.

The resumption of supply of Krishna Water is likely to resume from
first week of October once Kandaleru dam has enough water, the
official said.

Andhra Pradesh opened the gates of Kandaleru Reservoir on August as
500 cusecs of Krishna water was let out to quench the thirst of
Chennaites. The water was released after the state government wrote
letters requesting release of water to rejuvenate the depleting
reservoirs. Till now total of 1.54 TMC ft of water was released from
August to September 15.