NEW DELHI: At least 31 reservoirs in the southern states are seeing a drop in water levels, with storage available being just seven per cent of total capacity.
The situation seems better in rest of the country when with last year’s figures. The data released by the Central Water Commission shows that water storage available in 91 major reservoirs in the country for the week ending on June 8 was 31.862 BCM (billion cubic meters), which is 20 per cent of the total storage capacity of these reservoirs.
This percentage was at 21 per cent last week. Last year, it stood at 130 per cent for the corresponding period.
The total storage capacity of 91 reservoirs is 157.799 BCM, which is about 62 per cent of the total storage capacity of 253.388 BCM in the country. Of the 91 reservoirs, 37 provide hydropower with an installed capacity of 60 MW.
The southern region includes Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The storage during the corresponding period of last year was 10 per cent.
“Thus the storage during current year is less than the corresponding period last year and is also less than the average storage during the corresponding periods in the last 10 years,” said the Water Commission.
States having better storage than last year for corresponding period are Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Tripura, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana. States having lesser storage than last year for the corresponding period are Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.