South water reservoir levels down 46%: Central Water Commission bulletin

Reservoirs in the southern part of the country have just about half the water they did around the same time last year.

They hold 7.49 billion cubic metres of water compared to 13.87 billion cubic metres in May 2023, a decline of 46 per cent, shows the latest bulletin from the Central Water Commission. In comparison, water levels in the north are down 23.4 per cent, west is down 17 per cent, and central Indian reservoir levels are down 16 per cent. Eastern India is the only one with gains of 17 per cent.

The live storage in 150 reservoirs of the country was 45.3 bcm as on May 16, 2024. It was 57.4 bcm in 2023.

The data is available since 2015 when the storage was 46.1 bcm.

Comparisons with previous years are made based on the closest available data to the current bulletin release date. Capacity utilised, as per the bulletin released last week, was at 25 per cent down from 32 per cent around the same period in 2023.

According to the bulletin, 14 states, including Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh, had less storage than the corresponding period in last year. Conversely, storage has improved in seven states, while Uttarakhand remains at the same level as the previous year.