As Prime Minister Modi turn 69 today, he has plans to visit the huge Sardar Sarovar Dam (also famously known as Narmada Dam) later today. But the bigger news lies in the fact that the Narmada Dam has reached its full water capacity also called FRL (Full Reservoir Level) for the first time ever on September 15.
At this water capacity, entire Gujarat might be fed its drinking and irrigation water needs for the next 2 upcoming years.
This year Gujarat has received good rains and is running rainfall excess as of now.
Narmada is the only river that flows from East to West in that area. Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra fall in the catchment areas of this dam. These three states have also received good rains in the last many days, leading to inflow of sufficient water.
Just a few days before on September 8, the dam had reached its water level of 136.2 m. As a consequence, 23 out of 30 gates had to be opened due to the incessant rains. Flood warning was issued for the villages falling in Narmada, Baruch and Vadodara districts.
Looking at the weather forecast around the region, there is a huge chance of Gujarat receiving rains in the next one week, as well as a couple of systems, are surrounding the area. There is a possibility of good rains on September 24, 25 and 26. These widespread rains will be majorly affecting the catchment areas.
It is advisable for the dam authorities to keep water capacity in check and to allow outflow of stored water from time to time so as to avoid any danger.
The dam plays a huge role in the lives of people living around it. It serves drinking water to 131 urban centers and almost 10,000 villages (53% of total villages in Gujarat). The dam’s water feeds 75,000 sq ft of canal network. A total of 1450 MW energy is produced at its installed capacity.
The Narmada Dam has a total height of 138.68 m. The Dam has a history of several protests running against its construction as well the recent increase of height from 121.92 m back in 2017. The reason for raising height of Dam was to increase its water storage capacity so as to batter the perpetual rain deficiency of drought-prone Gujarat. Last year too turned out to be a drought year for the state of Gujarat with huge rain deficiency for the state. However, this year seems to be drawing a different picture altogether.
Image Credits – The Hindu
Any information taken from here should be credited to Skymet Weather
