With two months of the monsoon season over, water levels in the 70 important reservoirs continue to be below normal. According to the Central Water Commission (CWC) data, on July 26, the total water level in the 70 reservoirs stood at 23 billion cubic metres, or 18 per cent of the full reservoir level of 130.55 billion cubic metres.
The water level had risen from 13 per cent of the full reservoir level on June 1, the beginning of the monsoon, to just 18 per cent in two months. The normal water level at this time of the year should have been 40 per cent of the full reservoir level, a water resources ministry official told Business Standard.
As a percentage of the last 10 years' average, the present water level was just 46 per cent of the normal at this point of the season, he said.
The failure of monsoon had also hit hydropower generation because all 26 projects with an installed capacity of 60 mw each had storage build-up less than the average of last 10 years. Hydel power generation had slipped 30 per cent because of the water shortage, he added.