Water level in reservoirs shrinks to 30% of storage capacity
NEW DELHI : Water level in India’s 150 major reservoirs fell to 30% of their total storage capacity, with eastern and southern India seeing levels depleting rapidly owing to severe heatwave. While 26 reservoirs have 50% of normal water storage capacity, the level in reservoirs of eastern and southern regions has dropped to as low as 39% and 17%, respectively, as per the bulletin released by the Central Water Commission on Thursday.
Southern states such as Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have been facing significant shortfalls in water storage with cities like Bengaluru grappling with severe water crises. The depleting water level could be attributed to lower rainfall and scorching summer caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon, (which finally ended on 16 April as per the Australian Bureau of Meteorology), resulting in insufficient rainfall in India, and leading to water scarcity in some regions, besides droughts and prolonged dry periods across Asia.
As many as 18 states in the country have witnessed rain deficiency or no rainfall since March. The country has received 15% below-normal rainfall since March, as per the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
According to data from the Central Water Commission (CWC), the available water level this week in these reservoirs was 53.358 billion cubic meter (BCM), 17.6% lower than the corresponding period last year when it was 64.775 BCM and nearly 4% lower than the average of last 10 years (55.523 BCM). The live storage available in 150 reservoirs as of Thursday was 82% of the live storage of the corresponding period of the previous year and 96% of storage of average of the past 10 years.
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