Newsletter No. 65;
IRBMS
decade. Many of the large dams’ like Tungabhadra,
Panchet, Maithon etc. capacity has reduced
Water in Major Reservoirs of 10 States in considerably due to siltation. Less storage capacity
2018 is Below 2017 Levels of the reservoirs is also an indicator of the
increasing sedimentation and health of the rivers
In 1900 India was having 67 large dams and in 2015
India is having 5190 Large Dams in which
and their catchment area that feed into these
reservoirs.
Maharastra is having 1845 large dams. But every
year water crisis increasing in leaps and bound.
Even though most of the reservoirs were full
during the monsoons, less storage is likely to affect
In 2018 ten states have lesser water stored in their
reservoirs
compared
to
the
levels
in
the
corresponding period in 2017. The water level in
reservoirs of these 10 states is also less than the
average storage of last ten years around the same
period, says the data released by CWC on
December 27, 2018. States, having lesser storage
(compared to storage of at least last 10 yrs.) for the
period are Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal,
Gujarat, Maharastra, Chattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh,
Andhra Pradesh, Telegana and Karnataka. Four out
of six states in South India remained the most
empty in the region, where the water storage was
the rabi crop. Less rainfall in some of the regions in
Maharashtra causes less storage in water reservoirs
this will likely to aggravate the situation further.
The
India
Meteorological
Department
has
predicted that El Nino is likely to affect the 2019
monsoon season. A deficit monsoon is once again
expected to result in less storage capacity and
affect India’s already-stressed farmers. In March
2018, Union Minister Shri Nitin Gadkari called for
increasing the total capacity of completed dams in
the country from 253 billion cubic meter (BCM) to
450 BCM. But it is also the time for a serious reality
check of the overall water scenario of the country.
46% less than the average stored water in the last
decade. Amongst these, the average storage in the
reservoirs of Andhra Pradesh and Telengana was
the least. Gujarat (29% less) remained the most
empty in the region, followed by Maharastra
(27%). West Bengal among the Eastern states
stored the least with the water stored being 24%
less than the average water stored in the last
6
Integrated River Basin Management Society