The Hindu Business Line : AP to give water from Srisailam for Chennai

THE Andhra Pradesh Government has agreed to release 10,000 cusecs a day from the Srisailam reservoir to help partly meet the drinking water requirement of Chennai city, which is faced with acute drinking water shortage.

The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Dr Y.S. Rajashekhara Reddy, held parleys with his Tamil Nadu counterpart, Ms J. Jayalalithaa. Both of them expressed that the talks were positive and the Andhra Pradesh Government would make all out effort to partly meet the water requirement of Chennai.

Ms Jayalalithaa was in Hyderabad along with senior members of her Cabinet and discussed the issue relating to the arrangement for water sharing by the southern States, entered into during the tenure of Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, in 1983.

As per the arrangement Tamil Nadu would receive 15 tmc of water, five each from Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

Later speaking to newspersons, Ms Jayalalithaa said, "I am happy with the discussions we had with Andhra Pradesh CM and we have been assured of water supply to Chennai. As opposed to overall requirement of 850 million litres per day, barely 180 mld is available for drinking water purpose now. All the three reservoirs have dried up. With the water from Andhra Pradesh, we would be able to partly meet this requirement."

Addressing a press conference later, Dr Reddy said, "We will try and keep up the commitment we made to Tamil Nadu for supply of drinking water to Chennai. Out of Rs 1,630 crore spent for Telugu Ganga project, about Rs 512 crore was provided by Tamil Nadu. We plan to step up supply from Srisailam and it would take a while before the water reaches the Chennai city en route Kandaleru reservoir. Probably by the middle of this month, they will get water."

"With the onset of the north-east monsoon, we expect rains in the Nellore region would add up to the inflows in the reservoirs. This would further supplement the water flow from Srisailam. While Srisailam would be able to breach the gap partly, we expect water levels to go up in Penna and Somasila by next month, then we will be able to provide additional water," Dr Reddy said.

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