Punjab farmers face Bhakra water crisis

Farmers in Punjab, reeling from the impact of scanty rains, have another problem on their hands. Daily releases of water from the Bhakra Beas Management Board are down by over 40 per cent from last year.

The good news, however, is that it should be possible to sustain releases at this level since the snow melt gives Bhakra an inflow of 26,000 cubic feet per second (cusecs) as compared to the outflow of 19,000 cusecs, according to the Bhakra Beas Management Board Chairman Rakesh Nath.

"If there is no rain, the temperatures should remain at this level and so the inflow should remain at around 26,000 cusecs," says Nath.

In a good year, Bhakra Beas Management Board gets around 100,000 cusecs of rain water in July, around 61,000 cusecs in an average year, and around 40,000 cusecs in even a bad year.

This year, clearly, is very bad. In fact, even in a bad year like 2001, the Bhakra Beas Management Board was releasing more water than it is this year.

Yesterday, the level of water in the Bhakra Beas Management Board was 1,528 feet, around 86 feet less than it was on the same day last year.

As a result of the water shortage, hydroelectricity production at the Bhakra dam has also gone down by around a third. According to Nath, while around 45 million units of power were generated daily last year at around this time, it is now down to 30 million units.

Water supplies to Delhi have also been badly affected due to this, as around a third of Delhi's water needs are met through Bhakra supplies to the western Yamuna canal.

Supplies from the Ganges (Delhi gets around 100 million gallons a day from here) have, fortunately, not been affected so far.

Empty dam

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• Daily releases of water from the Bhakra Beas Management Board are down by over 40 per cent from last year

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• In a good year, the Bhakra Beas Management Board gets around 100,000 cusecs of rain water in July, around 61,000 cusecs in an average year, and around 40,000 cusecs in even a bad year.

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• As a result of the water shortage, hydroelectricity production at the Bhakra dam has also gone down by around a third.

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• Water supplies to Delhi have also been badly affected due to this, as around a third of Delhi's water needs are met through Bhakra supplies to the western Yamuna canal.