Chennai: Water released from the Mettur dam a week ago finally reached the Veeranam tank in Cuddalore district on Wednesday, bringing temporary relief to one of the city’s key drinking water sources. However, officials warned that the city’s current reserves may last only about three months if the monsoons fail to deliver sufficient rains.Water Resources Department (WRD) officials said 400 cubic foot per second (cusecs) of water, is now flowing into the Veeranam tank, translating to roughly 35 million cubic feet (mcft) a day. If the inflow continues uninterrupted for the next 45 days, the tank will reach its full storage capacity of 1,465mcft.At present, however, the tank holds just 285mcft, just enough to meet supply needs for the next 15 days, officials said. Metrowater continues to draw 180 million litres a day from the tank for the city’s drinking water needs, making the fresh inflow critical to sustain supply until storage improves.Storage in the city’s other major sources also remains under pressure. The five reservoirs in Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts together hold 5,930mcft. But a senior WRD engineer said the entire quantity cannot be used for public distribution as nearly 10% is lost to evaporation, percolation and dead storage. After accounting for this, only about 5,400mcft is effectively available, enough to sustain the city for roughly three months.Officials said supplies from Andhra Pradesh’s Kandaleru reservoir through the Krishna canal could help ease the situation. Under an interstate agreement, Andhra Pradesh is expected to release 12 thousand million cubic feet (tmcft) of water annually between June and July. However, officials said the state has so far not released more than 8tmcft in a year.With storage levels low across Chennai’s major water sources, officials said any significant improvement will depend largely on the timely onset of the northeast monsoon later this year.
