VIJAYAWADA: The latest weekly report of reservoir levels from the Central Water Commission (CWC), draws a grim picture of irrigation and drinking water availability in southern states, more so in Andhra Pradesh. As per the report, the reservoirs in the State are having 52 per cent less than normal levels, while in the two reservoirs-Nagarjuna Sagar and Srisailam, shared by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the water availability is 67 per cent less than normal.
Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh Water Resources Information and Management system shows the current reservoir levels are only 25.29 per cent of the total gross capacity of the reservoirs in the State, which is 983.59 TMC. Last year on the same day, the water levels were 88.73 per cent of the gross capacity of reservoirs.
The officials point to the delayed onset of monsoon and prolonged dry spell during August as the reason for the decline in storage levels in the State and rest of South India. With less to no inflows in Krishna and its tributaries and several other rivers in the State and release of water for power generation and irrigation purposes in the first couple of months of the current water year, there has been a drastic drop in the storage levels of several reservoirs in the State.
CWC report also indicates that reservoirs in the Northern part of the country have better than normal storage levels. The major rivers, including Brahmaputra, Barak, Indus, Godavari, Mahanadi, and west flowing rivers between Tapi and Tadri have close to normal levels. However, the east flowing rivers between Mahanadi and Pennar, Pennar and Kanyakumari, Krishna, Cauvery and West Flowing Rivers from Tadri to Kanyakumari have deficient storage levels.
In South India, there are a total of 42 reservoirs under CWC monitoring with a total live storage capacity of 53.334 BCM (billion cubic metres) and as on October 19, the total storage level in these reservoirs were 25.361 BCM, which is 48 per cent. The storage during the corresponding period of last year was 92 per cent and average storage of the last ten years during corresponding period was 74 per cent of live storage capacity of these reservoirs.
In case of Nagarjuna Sagar and Srisailam reservoirs, the water availability is 67 per cent less than normal and is 25 per cent of the full reservoir level (FRL) in the current water year, while it was 98 per cent in the previous year for the corresponding period. It is to be noted that 76 per cent was the average storage of the last ten years during the corresponding period.