NEW DELHI: With summer approaching, the rapidly falling water levels in country’s reservoirs should be a cause of concern for the government. The water storage available in 91 major reservoirs is only 45 percent of the total storage capacity compared to 48 percent last week.
According to the data released by the ministry of water resources, the water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country for the week ending on February 16, 2017, was 71.683 BCM, which is 45 percent of total storage capacity of these reservoirs.
This percentage was at 48 for the week ending February 09, 2017. The level of February 16, 2017, was 128 percent of the storage of corresponding period of last year and 102 percent of storage of average of last ten years.
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 an installed capacity of more than 60 MW.
Last year, many states in the country were affected by drought. Railways had run several trains carrying water to Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh.