Water storage level in 73 reservoirs less than last year

NEW DELHI: The water storage level in 73 important reservoirs in the country, which is monitored by the Central Water Commission, is less in comparison with their corresponding figures for the period last year.

An official statement here said, there are 15 reservoirs in the eastern region comprising Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Tripura under the monitoring of Central Water Commission (CWC).

As on August 27, the total storage available in these reservoirs is 9.90 BCM which is 53 per cent of total storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during corresponding period of last year was 63 per cent and average storage of last ten years during corresponding period was 60 per cent of storage capacity of these reservoirs.

"Thus, storage during current year is less than the corresponding period of last year and is also less than the average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period," the statement said.

Similarly, in the the western region comprising Gujarat and Maharashtra, there are 27 reservoirs under CWC monitoring, whose present storage is 60 per cent of total storage capacity of these reservoirs.

"The storage during corresponding period of last year was 63 per cent and average storage of last ten years during corresponding period was 67 per cent of live storage capacity of these reservoirs. Thus, storage during current year is less than the storage of last year and is also less than the average storage of last ten years," the statement said.

As far as the southern states are concerned, where there are 31 reservoirs under CWC monitoring the total storage available in these reservoirs is 34 per cent.

The storage during corresponding period of last year was 61 per cent and average storage of last ten years during corresponding period was 72 per cent of storage capacity of these reservoirs.

"Thus, storage during current year is less than the corresponding period of last year and is also less than the average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period," the statement said.

However, water storage in about 18 important reservoirs located in the northern and central region are better when compared with the corresponding period of last year and previous ten years as well.

Moreover, the collective current storage level of all the 91 important storage levels is better than the storage position of last year, which is also better than the storage of average of last ten years.

States having better storage than last year for corresponding period are Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Tripura, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh. States having equal storage than last year for corresponding period is Andhra Pradesh.

States having lesser storage than last year for corresponding period include Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra, the statement added.