Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, TN worst hit due to water shortage in India

Water level dropped by 3% in 91 major reservoirs in the country

Among all the regions in the country, southern  India is the worst hit due to shortage of water. The total live storage available in the reservoirs is only 20 per cent of total capacity as compared to 54 per cent in central and western region, 63 per cent in eastern region and 29 per cent in northern region.

On Tuesday, the Centre gave an update on the water level of 91 major reservoirs in the country. According to the data, water level dropped by three per cent in these reservoirs.

The water storage available in 91 major reservoirs of the country for the week ending March 2, 2017 was 64.55 BCM, which is 41 per cent of total storage capacity of these reservoirs. This percentage was at 44 for the week ending February 23, 2017. The level on March 2, 2017 was 132 per cent of the storage of corresponding period of last year and 102 per cent of storage of average of last ten years. 

The total storage capacity of these 91 reservoirs is 157.799 BCM which is about 62 per cent of the total storage capacity of 253.388 BCM which is estimated to have been created in the country. 37 Reservoirs out of these 91 have hydropower benefit with installed capacity of more than 60 MW.

The worst hit in southern region includes 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 in the southern region. The total live storage available in these reservoirs is 10.16 BCM which is 20 per cent of total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. The storage during corresponding period of last year was 22 per cent and average storage of last ten years during corresponding period was 36 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 ten years during the corresponding period.

Tamil Nadu is one of the major drought hit states in the region. The state relies primarily on the North-East monsoon in the months of October to December for its water needs. The onset of the North-East Monsoon, 2016, was considerably delayed and it set in only on 30.10.2016 in the state. Even though the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast a normal rainfall during the season, there has been very little rainfall in the State. The State received only 168.3 mm of rainfall during North-East monsoon as against the normal rainfall of 440.4 mm — a deficit of 62 per cent. Earlier even in the South-West monsoon a deficit of 20 per cent was recorded.

Due to the failure of the South West and North-East monsoons in the year 2016-17, the water storage position in all the water bodies is at a critical level. As against the total storage capacity of 198.384 TMC ft. in 15 major irrigation reservoirs in the State, the water available as on 31.12.2016 is only 25.742 TMC ft. (ie.) 13 per cent as against a storage of 126.233 TMC ft.(64 per cent) on the same day in 2015. The combined storage in the four drinking water reservoirs which cater to the drinking water needs of Chennai city is only 1.966 TMC ft. as on 31.12.2016 as compared to 10.339 TMC ft. at the same time in 2015.