Water level of major dams increased for the sixth consecutive week
09-Aug-2024 01:38 PM
New Delhi. The latest data of the Central Water Commission shows that the water level in 150 major dams and reservoirs of the country improved for the sixth consecutive week, the main reason for which was 44 percent more rainfall than normal in the country during the first week of August.
According to the weekly bulletin of the Commission, during the current week, the water stock in these 150 dams and reservoirs increased to 115.736 billion cubic meters (BCM),
which is about 65 percent of its total storage capacity of 178.794 BCM. Heavy rainfall is occurring regularly in many parts of the country, due to which the water level is likely to increase further in the coming time.
It is noteworthy that during the same period last year, a total stock of 108.639 BCM water was available in the dams and reservoirs, whereas the stock of the current year has gone far ahead of that.
It is important to note here that due to very less monsoon rainfall during August 2023, a serious crisis of drought had arisen in many states of the country. Last week, the dams and reservoirs of 12 states of the country had water reserves below the normal level,
but during the current week the number of such states decreased to seven. This means that within just one week, the water reserves in five states increased to above the normal level.
According to the report of the Commission, except the northern region, the water reserves in dams and reservoirs in all the other four divisions of the country have increased above the normal level.
The northern region mainly includes Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. One special thing is that now nine dams and reservoirs of the country have water stock equivalent to the full storage capacity, whereas last week the number of such reservoirs was only 3.
Similarly, last week there were 67 such reservoirs in which less than 50 percent of the total storage capacity of water was available, but during the current week its number also fell to 51.
This means that now the water stock in 99 reservoirs at the national level has reached above 50 per cent of the total storage capacity.