Gujarat: Only 21.74 per cent water left in 203 dams

The Gujarat government has said all 203 small, medium and large dams in the state, including the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river, are now having 3503.87 million cubic meters of water in them, which is just 21.74 per cent of their actual storage capacity.
Looking at the acute water crisis prevalent in various parts of the state due to deficient rainfall last year, the Gujarat government has announced to keep water in 56 dams reserved for providing drinking water to people, an official release said today.
Till now, the state government has declared 994 villages of parched Saurashtra and Kutch region as 'partially scarcity- hit'.

According to Gujarat Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama, who heads a sub-committee of ministers for the assessment of scarcity, adequate measures are being taken to ease the sufferings of people.
Earlier today, the committee held a meeting at Gandhinagar to assess the water crisis and discuss steps to be taken by the government.
After the meeting, the state government said as many as 317 villages in 14 districts have been given water through tankers at present.

As the water crisis is expected to worsen in coming days, another 468 villages will be given water through tanker, it added.
Looking at the current situation and growing demand of water, state government has also announced to increase the water supply through Narmada canal network.

At present, 1100 million liters per day (MLD) water is distributed through Narmada canal network. Now, additional 900 MLD of water will be given, taking the total supply to 2000 MLD, the release said.
To stop the illegal fetching of water from Narmada canals, around 150 jawans of State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) have been deployed along the canal in various parts of state.
Gujarat government has also announced to distribute cattle fodder at concessional rates to the farmers and cattle rearers in Rajkot, Jamnagar, Devbhoomi-Dwarka, Porbandar and Kutch, which are the worst hit regions.
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From now onwards, the sub-committee will meet on every Wednesday after the Cabinet meeting and assess the scarcity situation, Chudasama told reporters.

He also said the state government has filed it's affidavit in the Supreme Court on the drought situation and the steps being taken by the government to alleviate the suffering.
"We have filed our affidavit today in the Supreme Court and apprised the honourable court about various steps taken by the government to ease the sufferings of people" the Minister said.
Earlier, the Gujarat government faced flak from the Supreme Court on late declaration of affected villages as scarcity hit due to deficient rainfall in the state.
Supreme Court had slammed the Gujarat government for submitting a note instead of an affidavit on the drought situation and directed it to file a detailed affidavit by April 21.