Rains in North Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh may avert summer water crisis

Chennai: The first spell of northeast monsoon has started bringing respite to north Tamil Nadu and bordering districts of Andhra located along the Coramandel coast.The regional weather office has forecast continuance of rainfall activities for north Tamil Nadu and coastal Andhra for next four days, till Friday. According to public works department sources here, the catchment areas of Chennai reservoirs and Kandaleru in Andhra have been receiving rains since Sunday.

Kandaleru, which provides Krishna drinking water for Chennai, is also slowly filling up. Before October, the reservoir had 4 tmcft of water and now over the past four weeks storage has doubled to 12 tmcft. Further, there is a steady inflow of water to Somasila dam which feeds Kandeluru.

“If rains continue till November, Chennai will get its due of water for next summer and the catchment areas of Kollidam in Nagapattinam and Cuddalore also received rains in the past three days and this will enhance the groundwater table of Veeranam tank and this is good news for water starved Chennai,” another official monitoring the water table told Deccan Chronicle.

“Both Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram received rains till Monday night bringing inflow to all the four reservoirs catering to greater Chennai. We are hopeful that by next week the water table in the Chennai reservoirs will inch towards 2 tmcft against the total capacity of 11tmcft water and Andhra has a due of more than 15 tmcft water that has to be released for Chennai,” the official added.