Krishna water canal: Water Resources Department begins maintenance works

An official attached to the WRD said, “We are carrying out patchworks along the canal without hindering the water flow. The engineers are working constantly to fix the faults immediately. We will desilt, do the lining and other works to ensure a smooth flow of water. This will continue throughout this season.”

The maintenance works are undertaken at a time when the water level in Kandaleru reservoir has gone below the Minimum Drawdown Level (MDDL) of 8.42 thousand million cubic (TMC) feet, which it reached last week. The storage in the reservoir on Sunday was 7.93 TMC. The level at Somasila and Srisailam reservoirs, the other two reservoirs linked to Kandaleru, was 13.70 TMC and 50.69 TMC 

respectively. 

On Sunday, water level at Poondi reservoir stood at 412 million cubic feet (MCFT), less than a quarter of the storage on the same day last year – 1,874 MCFT on the same day of the last year. The city received 312 cubic per second (cusecs) of water from the Kandaleru reservoir on Friday, which is likely to go down in the coming days. 

So far, the city had received only 0.25 TMC of water under the Krishna Water Supply agreement – under which Tamil Nadu has to receive 12 TMC ft annually. This is released in a staggered schedule - 8 TMC will be supplied between July and October, and the remaining between from January to April.