Severe drought in Andhra as well - Krishna River water supply totally stopped
Posted on: 21/Mar/2017 12:57:27 PM
As severe drought conditions have started prevailing in the state of Andhra just as experienced in the state of Tamil Nadu, the situation has arisen when Krishna river water cannot be diverted to Chennai. So, water supply to Chennai from Krishna river through Kandaleru Dam has stopped completely.
Higher officials from PWD (Public Works Department) explained that whenever the water level in the reservoir goes below the drain arrangement, it is known as ‘dead storage’. At this water level, it is not possible to distributed water through the drain systems. It can only be pumped, that too, in an emergency situation.
When there was ‘dead storage’ situation in the Kandaleru dam in 2016, water was pumped from this storage and taken to Chennai Metro. The water was pumped at the rate of 200 cft per second. The Poondi reservoir received water at the rate of 50 cft per second.
There is a distance of 162 km between Andhra-Tamil Nadu border zero-point. In the current situation, if the water is pumped from Kandaleru dam at 200 cft per second, there is the strong possibility that the water flow will stop at a distance of 100 km So, there are no chances for Krishna water to reach Poondi reservoir which is situated at a distance of 25.6 km from the zero-point (Tamil Nadu-Andhra border). So, the flow of water from Krishna has stopped completely.
In the present situation, the water opened from the Kandaleru dam cannot meet the drinking water demand from Thirupathi, Kalahasthi, Venkatagiri, and Nellore cities in Andhra.
Only if the water is opened at the rate of 1000 cft per second, the drinking water demand of these cities can be met.
As the water level in the dam is very low, currently, water is dispatched at the rate of 365 cft per second. This is not sufficient to meet the demands of even Andhra people. So, there are absolutely no prospects for Krishna water to reach the Poondi reservoir.
However, it cannot be said that Andhra state officials have completely stopped Krishna water. All the 5 sluice gates in the dam are kept open. Still, water flows only at the rate of 365 cft per second. As there is no water in the dam, there is no scope of water to be given to Chennai Metro.
It is worth noting that whenever there is a drought condition, Krishna river has always helped. Now, there is a situation where even Krishna river cannot help in helping the water shortage problem encountered in Chennai Metro.
