Water Woes in India: Water level of 91 Reservoirs Plunges to 20% of their Capacity

As summer peaks in India, the water level of 91 major reservoirs goes down by one per cent. According to the official sources, the water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country for the week ending on June 08, 2017 was 31.862 BCM, which is 20 percent of total storage capacity of these reservoirs. This percentage was at 21 for the week ending on June 01, 2017. The level of June 08, 2017 was 130 percent of the storage of corresponding period of last year and 107 percent of storage of average of last ten years.

The government said that the total storage capacity of these 91 reservoirs is 157.799 BCM which is about 62 percent of the total storage capacity of 253.388 BCM which is estimated to have been created in the country. 37 Reservoirs out of these 91 have hydropower benefit with installed capacity of more than 60 MW. In order to give an exact overview of reservoirs, Impact News is posting the entire status report:

REGION WISE STORAGE STATUS:
NORTHERN REGION
The northern region includes states of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Rajasthan. There are 6 reservoirs under Central Water Commission (CWC) monitoring having a total live storage capacity of 18.01 BCM. The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 4.72 BCM which is 26 percent of the total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during the corresponding period of last year was 22 percent and average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period was 28 percent of the live storage capacity of these reservoirs. Thus, storage during the current year is better than the corresponding period of last year but is less than the average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period.

EASTERN REGION
The Eastern region includes states of Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Tripura. There are 15 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having a total live storage capacity of 18.83 BCM. The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 4.31 BCM which is 23 percent of the total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during the corresponding period of last year was 18 percent and average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period was 17 percent of the live storage capacity of these reservoirs. Thus, storage during the current year is better than the corresponding period of last year and is also better than the average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period.

WESTERN REGION
The Western region includes states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. There are 27 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having a total live storage capacity of 27.07 BCM. The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 6.00 BCM which is 22 percent of the total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during the corresponding period of last year was 12 percent and average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period was 21 percent of the live storage capacity of these reservoirs. Thus, storage during the current year is better than the storage of last year and is also better than the average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period.

CENTRAL REGION
The Central region includes states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. There are 12 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total live storage capacity of 42.30 BCM. The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 13.04 BCM which is 31 percent of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during corresponding period of last year was 20 percent and average storage of last ten years during corresponding period was 17 percent of live storage capacity of these reservoirs. Thus, storage during current year is better than the storage of last year and is also better than the average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period.

SOUTHERN REGION
The Southern region includes States of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, AP&TG (Two combined projects in both states) Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. There are 31 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total live storage capacity of 51.59 BCM. The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 3.79 BCM which is 7 percent of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during corresponding period of last year was 10 percent and average storage of last ten years during corresponding period was 17 percent of live 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 government said that states having better storage than last year for the corresponding period are Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Tripura, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana. States having equal storage than last year for the corresponding period are AP&TG (Two combined projects in both states). States having lesser storage than last year for corresponding period are Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.
(Source:http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx)