VADODARA: Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani today said the problem of potable water stands resolved as the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) has allowed the use of seepage and dead water of the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river.
Rupani also said that as many as 10,000 villages and 167 cities in the state will not face any problem of drinking water until July this year.
"The Narmada Control Authority (NCA) in a meeting held recently sanctioned the use of seepage and dead water of the Sardar Sarovar dam," the chief minister said on the sidelines of an event in the city.
The Gujarat government had reportedly sought permission of the NCA to utilise the dam water through Special Irrigation Bypass Tunnel (IBPT) after the water level in the Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD) fell to an alarmingly low level.
The NCA held a meeting with state officials on February 9.
The storage in the SSD fell by 45 per cent, the lowest in the last 15 years, mainly due to poor rainfall in Madhya Pradesh last monsoon.
Besides Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan are the two other beneficiary states of the project.
"Usually, the state receives about nine million acre feet (MAF) of water. Of this, 0.20 MAF is given for industrial use. However, this year, the state has received only 4.71 MAF water," Gujarat Chief Secretary Dr J N Singh said today.