New Delhi: Slow-paced monsoon in the past week has widened the gap in water levels at 146 key reservoirs across the country.
During the week ended Wednesday, the water level in dams fell 1% below the 10-year average, for the first time this season, as it dropped 18% from a year ago. During the period, India received 260 mm of rainfall, 58% below normal.
Higher water levels will benefit the farm sector as farmers are heavily reliant on reservoir water for irrigation.
According to the Central Water Commission (CWC), the water level at 146 reservoirs as of Thursday was at 111.285 billion cubic metres (bcm), 62% of their total storage capacity.
The water level remained the same as last week. A year ago, the water available in these reservoirs was 135.88 bcm, and the average of the past 10 years was 112.92 bcm.
“The live storage available in 146 reservoirs as of Thursday is 82 % of the live storage of corresponding period of last year and 99% of storage of average of last ten years,” the CWC said.
While reservoirs in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Nagaland and Chhattisgarh had better storage than last year, Punjab, Rajasthan, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Kerala had lower water levels.
As far as regional variations are concerned, water levels at 40 reservoirs in southern India were 34% lower than last year and 30% below last week’s levels.
Water levels in 21 major dams in eastern India were 14% less than the year-ago period and 13% lower than the last 10-year average level. This is due to 20% and 13% deficient monsoon so far in east India and south peninsula, respectively. A large segment of agriculture crops in these states are still rain-fed.
About 10 reservoirs in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan had 15% more water than last year and 16% above the past decade average due to surplus rainfall in the north-west region.
In the case of 49 dams in west India and 26 reservoirs in central India, water level was 16% less on year and 6% lower as compared to the last 10-year average level and 1% less year-on-year and 3% more than the last 10-year average level, respectively, as per the CWC bulletin issued on Thursday.
Meanwhile, IMD in its 5-day forecast bulletin predicted heavy rainfall over east and adjoining central India in the next two days and over northeast India in next three days. A fresh wet spell of heavy precipitation over Western Himalayan region and adjoining plains is expected from Sunday. The rest of the country is expected to see subdued rainfall in the coming 4-5 days.
According to the weather bureau, overall monsoon rains across India remains in the ‘below normal’ category, with 6% below the benchmark long period average during 1 June-17 August. At present, east and northeast, south peninsula and central India are facing rainfall deficiency of 20%, 13% and 4%, respectively so far in the four-month monsoon season ending September.
Northwest India, on the other hand, is the only region that has received 9% above normal precipitation. The rainfall across the country on 1 August was 7% above the benchmark LPA. IMD predicted below normal rainfall in August at 94% of the LPA. Rain between 96-104% of the LPA is considered normal.
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Updated: 18 Aug 2023, 10:35 PM IST