Water Crisis Worsens in South India as Reservoir Levels Drop to 17%

Water levels in southern India have reached only 17% of the reservoir capacity, according to the latest bulletin released by the Central Water Commission (CWC). The bulletin reported that 42 reservoirs in the southern region, monitored by the CWC, have a total live storage capacity of 53.334 billion cubic meters (BCM). Presently, these reservoirs hold 8.865 BCM of water, representing a mere 17% of their total capacity. This signifies a substantial decrease compared to storage levels at the same time last year (29%) and the ten-year average for the corresponding period (23%).

The reduced storage levels in the southern region indicate worsening water scarcity, posing potential challenges for irrigation, drinking water supply, and hydroelectric power generation in these states. On the other hand, the eastern region, including states like Assam, Odisha, and West Bengal, has shown improvement in water storage levels compared to last year and the ten-year average. The bulletin reveals that in the eastern region, 23 monitored reservoirs with a total live storage capacity of 20.430 BCM currently hold 7.889 BCM of water, representing 39% of their total capacity. This demonstrates an improvement over the storage levels from the same period last year (34%) and the ten-year average (34%).

However, the situation is less optimistic in other regions. The western region, consisting of Gujarat and Maharashtra, reports storage levels of 11.771 BCM, which is only 31.7% of the total capacity of 49 monitored reservoirs. This is notably lower compared to storage levels of the previous year (38%) and the ten-year average (32.1%). Similarly, the northern and central regions also show declines in water storage levels compared to historical averages.

The broader analysis in the bulletin categorizes reservoir storage across various river basins as “better than normal,” “close to normal,” “deficient,” or “highly deficient”. River basins like Brahmaputra, Narmada, and Tapi are marked as having better-than-normal storage levels, whereas basins like Cauvery and east flowing rivers between Mahanadi and Pennar are classified as highly deficient.