Reservoir water levels rise above 10-year average with good monsoon rain

NEW DELHI: Water levels in 91 major reservoirs in India rose 20 per cent in the past week, boosted by good monsoon rains in most parts of the country.

The water available in the reservoirs was 54.419 billion cubic metres as of Thursday, compared with 59.10 bcm at the same time last year. The levels were above the 10-year average of 52.050 bcm, according to data from the Central Water Commission. Last week, the reservoir storage was 45.492 bcm.

Rising water levels in the reservoirs improve the prospects of planting crops and generating electricity after the four-month monsoon season, which ends September.

This year the monsoon is expected to be above normal, following two consecutive years of deficient rainfall.

The western and central regions have more water in their reservoirs this year than in 2015. Four reservoirs – three of them in Maharashtra still don’t have water, compared with six a fortnight ago.

The western region includes Gujarat and Maharashtra, which have water at about 32per cent of their reservoirs’ storage capacity whereas they had only 25per cent in the same period last year.

In the central region where 12 reservoirs are monitored by the commission, the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh currently have 48 per cent of their total storage capacity filled compared with 42per cent a year earlier.

So far, 35 reservoirs have water that exceeds last year’s levels and a total of 36 reservoirs have storage above the average of the past 10 years.

The basins of the Ganga, Narmada, Tapi, Godavari and the west-flowing rivers of southern India recorded better than normal storage, or above the 10-year average.

The Indus, Krishna, Mahanadi and Cauvery basins had deficient storage, while the rivers of the Kutch basin were highly deficient.