Andhra Pradesh suspends Krishna river water supply to Chennai

A water resources department official said that the state has stopped receiving Krishna water from Andhra Pradesh since Sunday. The Krishna water supply was stopped at a time when the combined storage of Poondi, Red Hills, Chembarambakkam and Cholavaram reservoirs stands at 1.31 thousand million cubic (TMC) feet as against its total storage capacity of 11.057 tmc ft.

Due to last year’s monsoon failure and poor storage in city reservoirs, Chennai Metrowater has been supplying drinking water on alternate day basis to overcome water shortage. Even to maintain the water supply on the alternate day basis at the rate of 580 to 600 million litres a day (MLD), the city requires at least one TMC feet of water a month.

The present storage of reservoir’s water would be just enough to sustain supply till July end. The city’s daily water requirement stands at 830 MLD.

Already, the residents of Perambur, Kolathur and Peravalur areas are started complaining about the fall in quantum of supply of water. Many residents were also forced to buy tanker lorry water due to the fall in groundwater levels.

Sources in Metrowater said that out of the 600 MLD of water required for alternate day supply, 380 MLD of water is being sourced from two desalination plants and Veeranam tank and 70 MLD from agricultural borewells in Tiruvallur district. Metrowater has also started drawing 30 to 50 mld water from local sources in added areas.

“We are sourcing 100 to 120 MLD of water from the reservoirs,” the sources said. “To augment city’s water supply, the Metrowater is working on a contingency plan. We will ensure continuation of supply of drinking water on alternate day basis,” sources said, adding that the water agency would soon start drawing water from borewells and mines in Neyveli to support the city’s water supply.

Sources said that the situation would improve if the South–West monsoon brings rains in catchments areas to step up storage in four reservoirs.