Water storage at 91 major reservoirs down by 2%
09 Mar 2018
The water storage available in 91 major reservoirs in the country for the week ending 8 March 2018 was 54.394 billion cubic metres (BCM) - just 34 per cent of total storage capacity of these reservoirs, even as the summer months have yet to step in.
The storage available was at 36 per cent capacity for the week ending on 1 March 2018.
The level of water storage in the week ending on 8 March was 89 per cent of the storage of the same period of last year and 91 per cent of storage of average of the last ten years.
The total storage capacity of these 91 reservoirs is 161.993 BCM which is about 63 per cent of the total storage capacity of 257.812. 37 Reservoirs out of these 91 are also utilised for hydropower generation with an installed capacity of over 60 MW.
Region-wise storage capacity in the country:
North India
The northern region includes Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan, and has six reservoirs under the Central Water Commission (CWC) with a total live storage capacity of 18.01 BCM.
The total live storage available currently in these reservoirs is 5.16 BCM, which is 29 per cent of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during the same period last year was 26 per cent and the average storage of the last ten years during corresponding period was 32 per cent of live storage capacity of these reservoirs.
Though this is better than what it was in the same period last year, it is lower than the average storage of the last ten years during the corresponding period.
East India
The eastern region includes Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Tripura, and has 15 reservoirs under the CWC with a total live storage capacity of 18.83 BCM.
The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 10.39 BCM which is 55 per cent of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during corresponding period of last year was 61 per cent and average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period was 51 per cent of live storage capacity of these reservoirs.
This means the storage during current year is lower than the corresponding period of last year but is better than the average storage of the last ten years during the corresponding period.
West India
The western region includes Gujarat and Maharashtra, and has 27 reservoirs under the CWC with a total live storage capacity of 31.26 BCM. The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 11.51 BCM, which is 37 per cent of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs.
The storage during the same period last year was 44 per cent and average storage of last ten years during corresponding period was 40 per cent of live storage capacity of these reservoirs.
The storage during current year is lower than the storage last year and is also lower than the average storage of the last ten years during the same period.
Central India
The Central region includes Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and has 12 reservoirs under CWC monitoring with a total live storage capacity of 42.30 BCM.
The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 14.56 BCM which is 34 per cent of the total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during the same period last year was 52 per cent and average storage of last ten years during corresponding period was 37 per cent of live storage capacity of these reservoirs.
The storage during current year is lower than the storage last year and is also lower than the average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period.
Southern India
The Southern region includes Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, and combined Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and has 31 reservoirs under CWC monitoring with a total live storage capacity of 51.59 BCM.
The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 12.77 BCM, which is 25 per cent of the total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during corresponding period of last year was 18 per cent and the average storage of the last ten years during same period was 32 per cent of live storage capacity of these reservoirs.
In Southern India, the storage during current year is better than the corresponding period of last year but is lower than the average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period.
States with better storage than last year for same period are Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Tripura, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana with two combined projects in the two states), Andhra Pradesh Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
States having a lower storage than last year for the same period are Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Odisha, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.