Water storage level of 91 major reservoirs dips by one percent

The Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation on Thursday said that the water storage level of 91 major reservoirs of the country has gone down by 1 per cent from last week.

"The water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country for the week ending on October 25, 2018 was 112.67 billion cubic metre (BCM) which is 70 per cent of total storage capacity of these reservoirs. This percentage was at 71 per cent for the week ending on October 18, 2018," according to the ministry.

However, stating that average storage of this year is one per cent higher than that of the last 10 years, the ministry said: "The level of water storage in the week ending on October 25, 2018 was 101 per cent of the storage of corresponding period of last year and 100% of storage of average of 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 BCM which is estimated to have been created in the country. As many as 37 reservoirs out of these 91 have hydropower benefit with installed capacity of more than 60 MW.

The ministry also gave out details about the region wise distribution of water storage stating, "The northern region includes States of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan. There are six reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total live storage capacity of 18.01 BCM. The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 15.96 BCM which is 89 per cent of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during corresponding period of last year was 76 per cent and average storage of last 10 years during corresponding period was 77 per cent of live storage capacity of these reservoirs. Thus, storage during current year is better than the corresponding period of last year and is also better than the average storage of last 10 years during the corresponding period."

"The Eastern region includes States of Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Tripura. There are 15 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total live storage capacity of 18.83 BCM. The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 14.02 BCM which is 74 per cent of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during the corresponding period of last year was 80 per cent and average storage of last 10 years during the corresponding period was 75 per cent of live storage capacity of these reservoirs. Thus, storage during current year is less than the corresponding period of last year and is also less than the average storage of last 10 years during the corresponding period," it added.

"The Western region includes States of Gujarat and Maharashtra. There are 27 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total live storage capacity of 31.26 BCM. The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 17.21 BCM which is 55 per cent of the total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during the corresponding period of last year was 71per cent and average storage of last 10 years during corresponding period was 67per cent of live storage capacity of these reservoirs. Thus, storage during current year is less than the storage of last year and is also less than the average storage of last 10 years during the corresponding period," the statements read.

"The Central region includes States of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. There are 12 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total live storage capacity of 42.30 BCM. The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 31.50 BCM which is 74 per cent of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during corresponding period of last year was 63 per cent and average storage of last 10 years during the corresponding period was 71 per cent of live storage capacity of these reservoirs. Thus, storage during current year is better than the storage of last year and is also better than the average storage of the last 10 years during the corresponding period," it added.

The Southern region includes States of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, AP&TG (Two combined projects in both states), Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. There are 31 reservoirs under CWC monitoring having total live storage capacity of 51.59 BCM. The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 33.98 BCM which is 66 per cent of the total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during the corresponding period of last year was 66 per cent and average storage of the last 10 years during the corresponding period was 66 per cent of live storage capacity of these reservoirs. Thus, storage during the current year is equal to the corresponding period of last year and is also equal to the average storage of the last 10 years during the corresponding period.

In its concluding statement, the ministry added, "States having better storage than last year for the corresponding period are Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. States having equal storage than last year for the corresponding period is Odisha. States having lesser storage than last year for the corresponding period are Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura, Gujarat, Maharashtra, AP&TG (Two combined projects in both states), Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.