Depleting water levels in reservoirs will have a direct bearing on the sowing and production of Rabi crops
At least 12 states had below-normal storage levels. Photo: iStock. Even days after the southwest monsoon was said to have covered the whole of India, the position of the country’s major reservoirs remains grim, with live storage being just 29 per cent of their total capacity.
The total storage available in 146 reservoirs in India was 51.064 billion cubic metres (BCM), according to Central Water Commission’s data released on July 6, 2023.
Reservoirs across the country are generally recharged during the monsoon months of June to September. These reservoirs are subsequently used for irrigating crops during the Rabi season as well as for drinking water purposes. Thus, the depleting water levels in reservoirs will have a direct bearing on the sowing and production of Rabi crops, which starts in October.
Watch video: How have Cyclone Biporjoy and El Nino influenced the monsoon in India?
Even though the storage has increased in the last three weeks, 107 of 146 reservoirs still reported water levels at 40 per cent or below their total capacity.
In fact, there were four reservoirs — Hariharjhore in Odisha, Bhima in Maharashtra, Tattihalla in Karnataka and Rangawan in UP — with zero storage.
At least 12 states had below-normal storage levels. These were Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Tripura, Nagaland, Bihar, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh (UP), Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.
Even though the monsoon almost covered the entire country in 22 days rather than the normal duration of 38 days, 35 per cent of the districts were suffering from “deficient rainfall and five per cent from large deficient” rainfall, according to data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
The IMD classifies rainfall as deficit when it is 19 per cent or less (-19 per cent) than the average amount. It is large deficit or large deficient when it is more than -59 per cent. Rainfall between -19 per cent and 19 per cent is classified as normal.
Compared to other regions, storage in 40 reservoirs of southern India was the lowest — at 20 per cent of these reservoirs’ total live storage capacity.
Down To Earth had earlier reported how South India received just 88.6 millimetres of rainfall in June, its lowest in the month in 122 years due to extremely severe cyclone Biparjoy and other interactions of wind systems that led to a unique progress of the monsoon winds.
Storage in northern, central, western, and eastern regions was 46 per cent, 36 per cent, 28 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively.
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