Water levels drop to 23 percent at 91 Indian Water Reservoirs

As the ongoing heatwave condition becomes unbearable in the country, another saddening and heart wrenching thing was declared by the Water Resources Ministry. The water levels of the 91 major water reservoir of the country have dropped down to the alarming 23 percent.

According to the ministry, 35.839 BCM (billion cubic meters) of water was left in these reservoirs as the end of last week. The total capacity of all these 91 water reservoirs is at 157.799 BCM.

The stock is 33 percent less than what was available last year. The stock is 23 per cent less than the 10-year average storage levels for the same period.

Only two states in the country have reported better storage than last year. These states are Andhra Pradesh and Tripura.

States that have reported the lower levels of water reservoirs compared to last year are West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Odisha, southern states like Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu are also in the list. Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh also declared that their water levels have fallen drastically.

The water storage capacity of all the reservoirs in the country is 253.88 BCM. This number included the small, medium and large water reservoirs. Among the total number of major reservoirs in India, 37 have hydropower benefit with installed capacity of more than 60 MW.

Story originally published in Financial Express.

Image Credit: Mashable