For the first time in 36 weeks, the water level in India’s major 150 reservoirs remained unchanged from last week, after the South-West monsoon lashed several parts of the country before its current pause.
While the storage improved in the southern region by 1 percentage point, it declined in other regions with levels below 30 per cent of the capacity, data from the Central Water Commission (CWC) showed.
The El Nino weather phenomenon, which emerged in June 2023, resulted in the country getting deficient rainfall until the last week of May, and at least 25 per cent of India suffered from drought.
Monsoon showers surplus on South
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the South-West monsoon, as of June 13, is 9 per cent lower than normal with the north-western region, a key area for kharif crops, receiving 57 per cent deficient rainfall. East and north-eastern parts have received 30 per cent deficient precipitation and Central India 9 per cent lower showers.
However, the southern peninsula, the worst affected during El Nino, has received a 50 per cent surplus rainfall, which is reflecting the storage position too. The IMD has said rainfall during the the South-West monsoon this year will be above normal.
According to CWC’s live storage status of 150 reservoirs in the country, the level in 139 of the reservoirs was below 50 per cent of the capacity with 129 being filled less than 40 per cent.
7 reservoirs dry
The reservoirs’ level was 22 per cent of the 178.784 billion cubic metres (BCM) capacity at 38.491 BCM. During the same period a year ago, the storage was 79 per cent. The average storage in the past decade was 92 per cent of the capacity.
The level in seven of the reservoirs continues to be zero with six of them in the southern region. Though storage is below 20 per cent, things have begun to improve with the levels improving in Kerala, Karnataka and Telangana besides reservoirs common to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
CWC data showed that the level in the 42 reservoirs was 14 per cent (13 per cent last week) of the 53.334 BCM capacity at 7.568 BCM. In Andhra Pradesh, the storage was 80 per cent below normal, while it was 1 per cent lower than usual in Telangana and 20 per cent in reservoirs that serve both these States.
In Tamil Nadu, the storage was 51 per cent lower than usual and in Karnataka, it was 21 per cent below normal. In Kerala, which has benefitted a lot from recent heavy downpours, the reservoirs had 20 per cent above normal storage.
In the 10 reservoirs of the northern region, the storage was 29 per cent of the 19.663 BCM capacity at 5.721 BCM. In Punjab and Rajasthan, the storage was 21 and 13 per cent below normal.
IMD forecast
The level in the 23 reservoirs of the eastern region was 21 per cent of the 20.430 BCM capacity at 4.380 BCM with storage in West Bengal 24 per cent lower than usual and Bihar 55 per cent below the normal level. In Odisha, the storage is 16 per cent below normal and 2 per cent lower than usual in Nagaland.
In the western region, the storage in the 49 reservoirs dropped to 21.36 per cent of the 37.130 BCM capacity at 7.931 BCM. Gujarat continued to have above-normal storage (19 per cent) though lower than last week, while in Maharashtra, the level was 16 per cent below normal.
In the 26 reservoirs of the Central region, the level declined to 12.891 BCM or 26.73 per cent of the 48.227 BCM capacity with the storage in Uttar Pradesh being 21 per cent (23 per cent) and 34 per cent (32 per cent) in Chhattisgarh below normal, respectively.
The IMD on Thursday said conditions were favourable for the monsoon to advance to some more parts of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, coastal Andhra Pradesh and north-west Bay of Bengal. This could help in marginal improvement in the storage level next week.