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Water level in India’s major reservoirs has dropped to 45 per cent of their total capacity, at a time when the India Meteorological Department has predicted above normal heatwave days between March and May and there are still two more months to go for the southwest monsoon season to begin.
As per the data released by Central Water Commission (CWC) on March 20, live storage available in 155 major reservoirs was 80.700 billion cubic metres (BCM). This was 45 per cent of total live storage capacity of 180.8 BCM of these reservoirs.
States having lesser storage than last year for the corresponding period were Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Jharkhand, Odisha, Nagaland, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Uttarakhand.
In the northern region, the water level was down to just 25 per cent of the capacity of its reservoirs. There are 11 reservoirs in the region (in the states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Rajasthan). Both Himachal Pradesh and Punjab experienced below normal storage for this time of the year. The departure from normal storage was 36 per cent and 45 per cent in the two states respectively.
Already, the daytime and nighttime temperatures were ranging much higher-than-normal in many regions across India. With the monsoon still over two months away in June, the low water availability in the reservoirs could affect the yields of summer crops sown currently (between Rabi and Kharif seasons).
The second lowest level was recorded in the reservoirs of the southern region. The region, comprising of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala, has a total of 43 reservoirs and the live storage in these was 41 per cent of the total live capacity.
Storage in the reservoirs of India’s western, central, and eastern regions was 55 per cent, 49 per cent, and 44 per cent respectively.
Meanwhile, of the 20 river basins recorded in the CWC data, 14 had below 50 per cent storage.
Of the 20, the Ganga river basin was at 50 per cent of its live capacity and river basins like the Godavari, Narmada, and Krishna had around 48 per cent, 47 per cent, and 34 per cent storage.
River systems in India provide water for irrigation, drinking and domestic consumption as well as cheap transportation and electricity. Low water shortage in the river basins affect the socio-economic conditions, livelihoods and agricultural activity of the country’s regions, which are dependent on the rivers for water supply.