In view of irregular monsoon rains and rising water scarcity, the Devendra Fadnavis government has decided to launch a massive outreach campaign in 200 out 358 taluks.

State ministers will tour the identified taluks and engage with the people for solving problems.

A senior Maharashtra government official said the decision to launch the State-wide outreach programme was taken at the State Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Revenue Minister of Maharashtra, Chandrakant Patil will formulate the programme for the Ministers.

Statistics collected by the Water Resources Department shows that in 3,266 large, medium and small dams in the State, only 64.77 per cent of the out of the total live supply was present. On the same day last year the number was 74.48 per cent, which in effect means that usable water storage in the state has declined by 10 per cent over the previous year. The water collected in a dam is classified as live storage and dead storage. Live storage is can be pumped out using outlet gates and canals. Dead storage cannot be pumped out of the dam as a certain amount of water always remains below the outlet gates.

Out of the six revenue divisions, Konkan has been traditionally getting more rains, which results in much higher water in the dams when compared with other divisions. However, this year the water storage is 89.49 per cent of the total live storage in the dams, while last year the number was 94.79 per cent.

The worst performing division has been Marathwada, which today has 27 per cent of the water, last year the water supply in the dams was at a comfortable level of 65 per cent. The agriculturally prosperous Nashik division has also suffered, with water levels at 65 per cent, last year the level was 82 per cent.

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