With reservoirs and dams seeing extremely low water levels in comparison to previous years, the water scarcity in western India is at alarming proportions.
Quoting data from the water resources department, a report in The Times of India says that the live storage levels in Maharashtra’s 3267 dams are at 14.62% on May 18, as against 24.52% on the same day last year. Thirty dams have zero water this year.
The situation is particularly dire in the Marathwada region, where dams have 3% water against 23.41% last year. In Nagpur division, it was 9% and 13.19% last year, TOI reported.
Things are looking bleak in Gujarat as well. According to a news report in DNA, 40% of the state’s 202 dams are empty, and 102 others have water levels below 30%. In Kutch, there are fears of the ‘worst ever drought’ since 1985. Faced with massive difficulties in procuring drinking water, residents of one village have reportedly started digging their own wells and drinking polluted water.
Last Thursday, the Central Water Commission (CWC), which monitors 91 reservoirs across India, says that 27 reservoirs in Maharashtra and Gujarat were at 13% of their live storage capacity (as on May 16), against 18% in 2018, and the decadal average of 22%. In actual volumes, these reservoirs contained 4.10 BCM (billion cubic metres) of water when last measured. The CWC data is updated every Thursday, so the next set of numbers will be available on May 23.
Southern India is not faring much better. On May 16, 31 CWC-monitored reservoirs in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu were at 13% of live storage capacity. While this is the same level as the corresponding period last year, it is below the 10-year level of 16%.
Northern, Central and Eastern India, however, had comparatively better reservoir levels, bringing up the national live storage average for 91 reservoirs to 115% of last year’s capacity for the corresponding period.
Following these findings, the Centre last week issued a “drought advisory” to Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu, asking them use water in their reservoirs judiciously. Such advisories are usually issued when water levels are less than 20% of the 10-year average live storage figures.
A study at IIT Gandhinagar last month found that 16% of India is currently under ‘severe drought’, while 40% is facing ‘drought’. The severe drought-hit areas, according to the researchers, are in Arunachal Pradesh and Maharashtra (Marathwada and Madhya Maharashtra).
