Water level at India's main reservoirs drops to 23%: CWC report
water level of the country's 150 main reservoirs has dropped to 23 per cent and is also 77 per cent less than last year's levels at this time, according to Central Water Commission (CWC) data. Last week, the live storage of these reservoirs was at 24 per cent.
The present storage is merely 77 per cent of last year's levels and 94 per cent of the normal storage, CWC data stated.
In its latest weekly bulletin, released on Friday, the commission said that «the total live storage available is 41.705 billion cubic metres (BCM), equating to 23 per cent of the total capacity».
«This is a significant decrease from the 53.832 BCM recorded during the same period last year and the normal storage level of 44.511 BCM. Consequently, the current storage is only 77 per cent of last year's levels and 94 per cent of the normal storage,» the commission said.
The 150 main reservoirs monitored by the CWC have a combined live storage capacity of 178.784 BCM, which is around 69.35 per cent of the total storage capacity created in the country.
Ten of the 150 reservoirs are located in the northern region — Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan — and have a live storage capacity of 19.663 BCM. This has dropped to 5.864 BCM (30 per cent of total capacity), according to the CWC bulletin for the week May 16 to May 31.
Last year, during the corresponding period, storage was at 38 per cent. The normal storage at this time of the year is 31 per cent.
In the eastern region — Assam, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Tripura, Nagaland and Bihar
