However, storage levels are not uniform across the country
Photo: iStock Water storage levels in India’s 146 reservoirs improved from 48 per cent of the total live storage capacity to 62 per cent in the last two weeks.
According to new data released by the Central Water Commission on August 10, 2023, the live storage available in these reservoirs was 109.98 BCM (billion cubic metre), which is 62 per cent of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs.
It was 99.84 BCM on August 3, 2023, and 85.93 BCM on July 27, 2023.
Reservoirs across the country are recharged during the monsoon months of June to September and are subsequently used for irrigation of crops during the Rabi season and also for drinking water purposes.
However, storage levels were not uniform across the country. States including Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura, Bihar, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu had less than normal storage in their reservoirs. Normal storage signifies average storage of the last 10 years.
Most of these states have seen less than normal rainfall during the southwest monsoon season.
Of the 146 reservoirs, there were 55 which had 50 per cent or below storage. And there were three reservoirs which had less than 10 per cent storage, including one with zero water level, even as the monsoon is in its third month.
These were Sharda Sagar (zero per cent) and Jirgo (4 per cent) in Uttar Pradesh and Aliyar (eight per cent) in Tamil Nadu.
The northern region, which has 10 reservoirs, had 78 per cent storage of its available capacity, followed by Central region with its 26 reservoirs having 69 per storage cent of the total capacity, western region’s 49 reservoirs had 67 per cent storage, southern region having 40 reservoirs and 54 per cent storage, and lastly eastern region’s 21 reservoirs with 40 per cent storage of their capacity.
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