Gujarat government calls for judicious use of water

Following a sharp decrease in water storage of all the dams over river Narmada, including Sardar Sarovar, the Gujarat government today called for judicious use of water.
Due to a fall in the water storage, mainly because of a weak monsoon, Gujarat would only get 4.71 million acre feet (MAF) water, which is just 45 per cent of the sanctioned supply of 9 MAF awarded by the Narmada Tribunal to the state, an official release said.
Supply of water in the Sardar Sarovar Dam and various other dams upstream in the neighbouring Madhya Pradesh have received less water due to scarce rainfall in the catchment area of the Narmada river, which mostly falls in Madhya Pradesh, it said.

As a result, the overall water storage in all the dams over Narmada stands at just 14.66 MAF this year as against 29.18 MAF last year. Overall, this is the lowest water storage-level in the last 15 years, the release said.
Narmada water is distributed among four states -- Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. On an average, the total available water storage for all these states stands at 28 MAF.
As per the Tribunal's formula, Madhya Pradesh normally gets 18.25 MAF, Gujarat gets 9 MAF, Maharashtra gets 0.25 MAF and Rajasthan gets 0.50 MAF.

However, the situation is different this year. Due to very less water storage, Gujarat will get only 4.71 MAF this year, ending on June 30 as per the Tribunal's formula.

Due to very less incoming water supply, the water-level in the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat is also decreasing rapidly, the release said.
Between January 8 and 15 last year, the dam received over 25,700 cusecs of water, which came down to just 1,800 cusecs in the same period this year, it added.
Looking at the current situation, the state government urged farmers not to lift water from Narmada canals illegally.
The government also urged them to use water judiciously during the current Rabi (winter) season.
The state government has also announced to curtail water supply for the industries, which used to get 2 per cent, that is 0.20 MAF, of the average storage of 9 MAF.

But this year, they would only get 0.06 MAF water due to drop in the overall storage.
The state government also urged the municipal corporations to utilise other sources, such as French-wells on rivers.
Last week, the government had urged farmers to skip sowing of the summer crops in view of the shortage of water.
As the dam water will be saved for drinking purpose, farmers were advised to use alternate sources of irrigation such as bore-wells by the government.