CHENNAI: The much-awaited Krishna water has entered the State after Andhra Pradesh released 1,000 cusecs of it into the Kandaleru-Poondi canal on Tuesday. Public works department (PWD) sources said the water reached the zero point (the inter-State border in Uthukottai) at 4 pm on Thursday.The water was released after Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa urged her Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Kiran Kumar Reddy earlier this month to release the water from the Kandaleru reservoir to meet the drinking water requirements of Chennai till October.The storage in the Chennai water supply reservoirs was about 5.26 tmcft against the full capacity of 12 tmcft.Public Works Department sources said another 1,500 cusecs was released on Thursday and within two days, the water would stabilise to 600 to 700 cusecs.They said the Andhra Pradesh government has assured supply of 3 tmcft of water and would raise it to 5 tmcft, depending upon the south-west monsoon in the State. Tamil Nadu is entitled to get 12 tmcft from Andhra Pradesh every water year from June 1 to May 31 under the water sharing agreement reached between the two states. While 4 tmcft of water would be released between January and April, the remaining should be released between July and October. During 2010-11, only 4.6 tmcft of water was received as against the annual entitlement of 12 tmcft.According to PWD sources, the State had never got its full quota from Krishna in the last 15 years. The highest it had received was 7.02 tmcft in 2009-10. Till now, Tamil Nadu has received only 50.68 tmcft of water as against the 180 tmcft, which was expected to be discharged.Municipal administration and rural development minister K P Munusamy, Public Works Department minister K P Ramalingam, minister for handlooms and textiles B V Ramanaa, Metro Water managing director K Gopal and Thiruvallur Collector Ashish Chaterjee were present when the water reached the zero point.
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