India to face harsher summer with lower water levels in reservoirs
Ahead of summer season, low water level in reservoirs across India might add on to the challenge of maintaining water supply during summer. Water level in more than 100 reservoirs monitored across country was less than previous year
Amid the projection of record breaking temperatures this summer, lower level of water reservoirs may pose a bigger challenge for the government to match the water demand in coming months. Around 100 reservoirs of India have lower water level than previous year, stated the Central Water Commission in its weekly bulletin published on 9 March.
In a sigh of relief, the data also stated that the overall level of the reservoirs is still better than the ten years average. According to the weekly bulletin released by the CWC for 9 March, around 100 reservoirs have lesser water level than last year during the same time. On the other hand, 95 reservoirs monitored by the CWC have storage more than last ten years.
As per the data, the total level of the stored water in these reservoirs stood at 86.449 billion cubic metre(BCM) as of 9 March, 2023. The current level is lesser than the last year's live water storage, which was 94.027 BCM for the same period. The average of last 10 years live storage was 75.218 BCM.
State-wise water level of reservoirs
State-wise distribution of the data revealed larger amount of water storage in reservoirs of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh. Whereas, Tripura and Madhya Pradesh's reservoirs have equal storage of water. On the other hand, reservoirs have lesser than previous year of water storage in Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Nagaland, Bihar, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Region-wise comparison of the data of the reservoirs reveal that Southern region showed a significant drop in current water levels, compared to previous year during the same period. However, the level still remained above then ten years average. In southern region, the bulletin recorded the data of the reservoirs located in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu. As per the date current level of water stood at 22.77 billion cubic metre(BCM), which was lower than 28.62 BCM of water storage recorded last year. However, the 10 years average of the region is 18 BCM.
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