Running dry

Even as almost three fourth of the monsoon season is over,the overall picture is dull as 25 of 81 reservoirs are still running below 50 per cent of average levels. Of the remaining reservoirs,less that half (36) have storage more than 80 per cent,while about one fourth (17) had storage in the range of 50 per cent to 80 per cent of normal storage levels,the Water Resources Ministry had reported on August 20 to the Crop Weather Watch group that monitors the progress of the Kharif crop on a weekly basis.

In terms of the 12 major river basins across the country,water storage in only two — Narmada (+8.20 per cent) and Kaveri (+8.64 per cent) — are above the average levels of the last 10 years while most of all other river basins are running substantially below the average.

The Ganga (-37.69 per cent) and Indus (-46.89 per cent) river basins,crucial for most of the North and Northwest region’s agriculture,are running substantially below the average levels as on Friday last week.

As on last Friday,the water levels in these 81 reservoirs stood at 63.445 billion cubic metres (BCM) as against the full reservoir capacity of about 151.768 BCM. This means that the water levels in these reservoirs were only at about 42 per cent of their total capacity as against 63 per cent recorded around the same time last year. This is still below the 10-year average of 57 per cent of total capacity around this time of year.

The storage levels in the major reservoirs are crucial for the next crop as the water stored in these places is used not only for irrigation and power generation purposes,they are also useful in groundwater recharge. Reservoirs,incidentally,are crucial for hydropower,which accounts for a quarter of the country’s generation capacity of about 150,000 MW. They also provide water to irrigate winter or Rabi crops. As of last week,the deficient rainfall this monsoon had adversely affected the area under the Kharif crop,particularly paddy which was reported to be about 69 lakh hectares below the sowing levels last year.