Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh reaches Poondi reservoir

WRD is now diverting water to Chembarabakkam to augment the storage which was at 1.9 against a total of 3.6 tmcft.

Water from the Krishna, released by Andhra Pradesh, reached the Poondi reservoir on Friday morning.

This is set to help augment the depleting storage in the city reservoirs this summer. The inter-State border of the Kandaleru-Poondi (KP) canal in Uthukottai, Tiruvallur, received 135 cusecs (cubic feet per second) of water.

Officials of the Water Resources Department said the Krishna water, which was discharged from Andhra Pradesh on May 25, began flowing into the KP canal’s on Thursday night after a month’s gap. The water travelled 25 km into the canal to reach Poondi reservoir, where it would be stored and distributed to the city through the Red Hills and Chembarambakkam reservoirs.

On Friday, nearly 1,200 cusecs was discharged from Kandaleru reservoir. “We expect the water flow to improve and receive a minimum of 600 cusecs in a few days. If the Poondi reservoir receives an average of about 500 cusecs daily, we will be able to store 0.5 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) in 12 days,” an official said.

It may be recalled that the Andhra Pradesh government promised to provide 8 tmcft of Krishna water to meet Chennai’s drinking water needs. Of this, the city received nearly 7.55 tmcft of Krishna water as on September-end, with the remaining being provided now.

WRD was now diverting water to Chembarabakkam to augment the storage which was at 1.9 against a total of 3.6 tmcft. With water from the Krishna set to flow for some more days, the department was confident of managing water needs till the end of the year.