AHMEDABAD: One hundred twenty-one villages in parched Saurashtra, north Gujarat and Kutch region were today declared as 'partially scarcity-hit' due to acute shortage of water owing to deficient rainfall in last monsoon, the state government said.
With the latest addition, the total number of such affected villages across Gujarat stands at 1,115, even as all 203 dams in the state had approximately 20 per cent water of their total storage capacity, according to an official release.
Among the 121 villages declared 'partially scarcity-hit', 58 are in Kutch, 52 in Banaskantha district in north Gujarat and 11 in Jamnagar district in Saurashtra region, the release said.
The decision to put these villages into the 'affected' category was taken in a meeting of a sub-committee of ministers to assess the scarcity situation. The sub-committee is headed by Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama.
The meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Anandiben Patel at Gandhinagar, it said.
As per government, adequate measures are being taken to provide water and fodder for cattle in affected regions.
At present, 891 villages and adjoining localities across Gujarat have been provided water through 504 tankers.
During the meeting, the CM was informed that all 203 small, medium and large dams, including the Sardar Sarovar Dam on Narmada river, are now having 3245.93 million cubic metres of water in them, which is just 20.14 per cent of their actual storage capacity.