Government Issues Drought Advisory to Southern and Western States

The Government has issued a ‘drought advisory’ to Western and Southern states of India that includes Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana and Tamil Nadu urging them to use water sensibly. The advisory has been issued because the water storage in dams is falling to a ‘critical’ level.

A member of the Central Water Commission (CWC), SK Haldar said that on Friday the advisory was issued to Tamil Nadu while last week similar cautionary letters were sent to Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The drought advisory has been issued to States where the water level in reservoirs is 20% less than the average of live water storage figures of the last 10 years. The Central Water Commission observes water storage available in 91 main reservoirs in the country.

As per the figures released on 16^th May 2019, the total water storage available was 35.99 billion cubic metres or BCM that is 22% of the total storage capacity of these reservoirs. It must be noted that the total storage capacity of these 91 major reservoirs is - 161.993 BCM.

The number was at 24% for the week ended on 9^th May. The condition seems to be severe in the western as well as southern parts of India.

There are 27 reservoirs under CWC monitoring - 10 in Gujarat and 17 in Maharashtra - with a total live storage capacity of 31.26 BCM. Till 16^th May, the total live storage available in these reservoirs was 4.10 BCM, which is 13% of the total live storage capacity.

Now talking about the southern part of the country, there are 31 reservoirs under the Central Water Commission monitoring, with a total live storage capacity of 51.59 billion cubic metres. The CWC said, “The overall live storage available in these reservoirs is 6.86 billion cubic metres which is 13% of the total live storage capacity of these reservoirs”.

The advisory suggests that states use water only for drinking purpose until the dams are replenished.