CHENNAI: The combined storage of Red Hills, Cholavaram and Satyamurti Sagar in Poondi, reservoirs feeding Chennai's water supply, was around one thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) less on the New Year Day than what it was exactly a year ago. But, there is nothing to worry.

Kandaleru reservoir, the terminal storage point in Andhra Pradesh under the Krishna water supply system and which supplies water directly to the Poondi reservoir, has the highest quantum of water since the commissioning of the Krishna water supply project in 1996. "The present storage of Kandaleru [about 200 km north of Chennai] is about 35 tmcft. This is the highest so far," says a senior official of the Andhra Pradesh Irrigation Department dealing with the Telugu Ganga project. In the last decade, the maximum storage of Kandaleru was around 15 tmcft during most of the years. It was since 2005 that the storage was increased to around 30 tmcft.

On Monday morning, the combined storage of Red Hills, Cholavaram and Poondi reservoirs was around 5.9 tmcft against the total capacity of 7.4 tmcft. The plan of water managers in the two States is to fill the reservoirs as early as possible.

Given the current rate of daily addition of 60 million cubic feet through the Krishna source, it will take 25 days for the reservoirs to reach their full level.

So, the flow of Krishna water will continue almost till the month-end. The official says the supply from the Kandaleru reservoir will continue till the Chennai reservoirs are full.

Besides supplying water to Chennai, the Andhra Pradesh authorities are keen on completing, in the next six months, the work of lining the remaining portions of the Kandaleru-Poondi (KP) and Somasila-Kandaleru canals.

In the KP Canal, about 40 km has to be covered and in the case of the other canal, 15 km. The works can be taken up only after stopping the supply. (The Somasila dams feeds Kandaleru and both reservoirs are located in Nellore district.)

If the lining work is completed, it will ensure quicker flow of water to Chennai, the senior official says. It is because of the execution of the work in a majority of the stretch of the KP Canal that the rate of realisation has improved now. Earlier, the realisation was around 400-450 cubic feet a second. Now, it is around 800 cusecs.

At present, Chennai Metrowater provides around 650 million litres a day (MLD) of which 575 MLD is earmarked for domestic supply.

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