A water-starved Chennai may now have to wait for another week for water from river Krishna to be released from Andhra Pradesh, Times of India reported.
The water from the river, which flows into the Poondi reservoir through the Poondi-Kandaleru canal, had been suspended after Cyclone Vardah had hit the city, the report adds.
Water was expected to be released by the beginning of January and there has been no intimation from Andhra Pradesh on the exact date of release.
Chennai has been facing a 56% deficit in rainfall and information from the IMD revealed that there has been no system formation in the Bay of Bengal either to bring relief to the city for the next few weeks, the report states.
The combined storage capacity of four reservoirs in the city currently have only 15% of the total capacity of 11,057 million cubic feet and Metrowater officials are relying on the water from river Krishna being release into the Poondi reservoir apart from well field and the desalination plants at Nemmeli, Minjur and Veeranam tank, the report states.
Currently, the storage levels are expected to last for only two months and Metrowater has floated tenders to hire private agricultural well fields to draw ground water.
Source: The News Minute