Water storage in major reservoirs still below average

Even as rain pounded many parts of Karnataka in the past one week, major reservoirs were still far from their storage capacity which remained below average, officials said.
"Though we received good rainfall in one week, damsare still below the average", said Dr G S Srinivasa Reddy, director, Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre.
Reddy said that the Almatti dam in north Karnataka was full to its capacity but the inflow is not satisfactory. "Almatti dam is full because we are not releasing water into the canals. We are expecting more flow of water," he said.
Data shows that Krishnaraja Sagar dam that provides water to Mysuru, Mandya and Bengaluru has 100 ft wateragainst the full capacity of 124 ft Hemavathi has 2,893.27 ft water against the capacity of 2,922 ft.

Bhadra dam has a capacity of 2,158 while presently it has 2,134.16 ft water.
Similarly, Linganamakki dam with a capacity of 1,819 ft has 1,794.80 ft.

Vijay Kumar, chief engineer, Inter-State Water, Cauvery river, said the flow in the four dams under his control has improved but it was not satisfactory.However, the water storage in 13 dams of the state has improved substantially as compared to the last year.
There was a drought situation in many parts of the state last year.
"Last year, monsoon failed in August, September and October leading to severe drought in many parts of the State. The situation is better this year due to rains for the past one week," said Reddy.

Heads of various government departments including agriculture, revenue and water resource will hold a meeting in September end to prepare a consolidated monsoon report and its impact.