VIJAYAWADA: With delay in the onset of monsoon, water levels in major reservoirs in the State continue to plummet. Adding to the worries is the depletion of groundwater, which has gone down by 2.85 metres in June compared to the corresponding month last year, in all the 13 districts.
The eight major reservoirs – Srisailam, Nagarjuna Sagar, Pulichintala, Yeleru, Somasila, Kandaleru, Velugodu and Chitravati -- have a storage of only 23 per cent of their capacity. The present storage in these reservoirs is 180.19 TMC as against their cumulative capacity of 770.71 TMC.
This is further lower than the corresponding level of 190 TMC in 2018. Water resources officials said the levels in the reservoirs went down marginally from last month.
“The reservoirs don’t receive any inflow in June. The situation continues till July, when we get some water from Godavari. Other than that, we depend on rainfall and upper riparian States. This time, as monsoon is delayed, there is a marginal dip compared to last year,” an official explained.
It might be recalled that the Central Water Commission, which releases a bulletin on storage levels in 91 reservoirs in the country every Thursday, issued a drought advisory to Andhra Pradesh a couple of weeks ago.
The State is reeling under drought conditions with a rainfall deviation of 66 per cent on an average, resulting in the fall of groundwater levels across the State, especially the four Rayalaseema districts of Anantapur, Chittoor, Kadapa and Kurnool.
The water table in these districts fell from 16.2 metres (below ground level) in last June to 23.31 metres this June. In May this year, water was available at 23.75 metres below ground level.
In Coastal Andhra Pradesh, groundwater level plummeted by 0.86 metres from 12.01 metres last June and by 0.04 metres from 12.83 metres since last month.
With depleting water levels, the State, which is predominantly rain-fed, has no agriculture activity in Kharif as farmers are waiting for the dry spell to end. “The situation is critical. The government will have to announce a contingency plan if the situation continues for the next couple of weeks,” said irrigation expert Yerneni Nagendranath.