Chennai: The water resources department (WRD) expects the release of Krishna water to resume from May 15 after a temporary halt by the Andhra Pradesh govt for maintenance works. Officials said Chennai has so far received 1.1tmcft of water in the ongoing second spell of Krishna water supply. The department also expects the supply to continue in the first spell from July, which is likely to support the city’s reservoir storage until the northeast monsoon begins.To augment Chennai’s water storage and meet drinking water demand during peak summer months, Andhra Pradesh discharged water from Kandaleru dam on Feb 25, which reached Poondi reservoir on March 4. However, due to maintenance work in Andhra Pradesh water bodies, the discharge was temporarily halted from March 29.“On an average, Krishna water at the rate of 300 to 400 cusecs was released during the second spell, and the city reservoirs have received 1.1tmcft of water in less than a month. We are expecting to receive over 1.5tmcft of water in the second spell, which will continue till the end of Jun,” said a senior WRD official.As per the agreement between Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh govts, the neighbouring state is required to supply 12tmcft of Krishna water during the first spell. However, only 3.7tmcft was drawn as the city reservoirs had reached full capacity during the 2025 northeast monsoon. Similarly, during the second spell, the department expects to receive around 3 to 4tmcft this year.“As there was a temporary halt in release of Krishna water, we expect the Andhra Pradesh govt to continue the supply without interruption during the first spell from July to Oct. We will be able to maintain adequate storage even if the northeast monsoon fails this year,” the official added.Meanwhile, WRD officials are assessing whether the reservoirs have adequate storage capacity to hold the Krishna water, based on which water will be transferred from one reservoir to another.Chennai’s six key reservoirs had a combined storage of 8,226mcft against the total capacity of 13,222mcft as on Friday. Among them, Chembarambakkam recorded the highest storage at 2,960mcft, followed by Red Hills at 2,075mcft and Poondi at 1,725mcft. Kannankottai Thervoykandigai held 384mcft, while Cholavaram remained the lowest at 246mcft.Veeranam reservoir, which supplements the city’s water supply, recorded a storage of 836mcft. The current storage level was sufficient to meet the city’s drinking water needs during the ongoing summer.
