The central government has issued a “drought advisory” for the southern and western states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu in view of water storage in dams dropping to a dangerous level.
As per a member of the Central Water Commission (CWC), on Friday, the advisory was delivered to Tamil Nadu and late this week similar warning letters were sent to Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Normally, the drought advisory is issued to different states when the water level in reservoirs is less than 20%, the average of live water storage numbers of the past 10 years.
Water falls under the State list and the advisory recommends states to utilize water for drinking purpose only till the dams are restocked. The CWC monitors water storage is accessible in 91 major reservoirs across the country.
According to the statistics released on Thursday, the total water storage existing was 35.99 billion cubic metres, which is 22% of total storage capacity of these reservoirs. 161.993 BCM is the total capacity of these 91 reservoirs.
The condition seems to be severe in western and southern parts of the country. The western region includes Gujarat and Maharashtra. There is a total of 27 reservoirs, 17 in Maharashtra and 10 in Gujarat, under Central Water Commission monitoring having a total live storage capacity of 31.26 BCM.
The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 4.10 BCM until May 16, which is 13% of total live storage capacity. The storage in 27 reservoirs of these two States during the corresponding period of last year was 18% and average storage of last 10 years was 22%.
The southern region includes Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. There are 31 reservoirs under Central Water Commission monitoring having total live storage capacity of 51.59 BCM.
The total live storage accessible in these reservoirs is 6.86 BCM, which is 13% of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during corresponding period of last year was 13% and average storage of last ten years during corresponding period was 16%.
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