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Gujarat Chief Secretary J N Singh visited the Narmada dam on Tuesday to take stock of the water level in the state’s lifeline reservoir. Singh visited the Irrigation Bypass Tunnel (IBPT), which has been instrumental in supplying drinking water to the state that is dependent on Narmada for its supply. The dam, which is at a level of 111.37 metres (as on Tuesday) of live storage, has a dead storage of one million acre feet (1 MAF). Singh said, “The live storage of the dam will last till about the end of February after which, the SSNNL has allowed us to use the dead storage water, which will enable villages and towns to receive their drinking water. However, we would still like the local bodies to preserve water.”
Chief Minister Vijay Rupani recently said the Narmada Control Authority (NCA) had allowed the use of seepage and dead water of the dam to tackle brewing water crisis. “The NCA has already sanctioned the use of seepage and dead water after it falls below 110.64 metres. There will be no problem on the drinking water front in the state,” he said. The NCA held a meeting with state government officials on February 9.
The storage in the dam fell by 45 per cent, the lowest in the last 15 years, mainly due to poor rainfall in Madhya Pradesh last monsoon. Besides Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan are the two other beneficiary states of the project.