Tankers begin rounds of Marathwada, Vidarbha villages as water levels dip

MUMBAI: Peak summer is yet to set in but more than a dozen districts across the state are reeling under acute shortage of drinking water. The water level in the major dams in drought-prone Vidarbha and a few districts in Marathwada has reduced drastically.
“It’s not an alarming situation but still we will have to draft an action plan for tackling shortage of drinking water in May and June,” a bureaucrat said.“We will have to utilise available water carefully. The chief minister’s ambitious Jalyukta Shivar scheme has come to our rescue to maintain water level in certain districts.”
On March 20 last year, the water supply department had deployed 154 tankers. At 88, the highest number of tankers were deployed in Marathwada, followed by 40 in Pune region and 14 in Nashik division.
On March 19 this year, while no tankers had been deployed in Nagpur division, in other parts 391 tankers had been deployed to provide drinking water to 401 villages and 10 hamlets. Most of these tankers have been deployed in Marathwada (252), followed by Amravati (85) and Nashik (53) regions.
In Aurangabad alone, 206 tankers have been deployed to supply potable water to 169 villages. Aurangabad is followed by Akola (46 tankers), Jalgaon (35) and Nanded (17).
“Our aim was to make Maharashtra tanker-free, but it appears to be a distant dream. We have been able to reduce the number of tankers in those villages where the Jalyukta Shivar schemes have been implemented successfully,” the bureaucrat said.
The bureaucrat said that though the overall dam position was satisfactory, water stock in Amravati and Nagpur regions was a matter of concern. Against a water stock of 33% last year, it was 21% in Amravati region. In Nagpur region the stock was 20%, compared to 22% last year.
“In certain dams in Marathwada and Vidarbha, the water stock is very poor; even zero per cent in more than half a dozen dams,’’ he said.
In Kokan, Marathwada, Pune and Nashik, there was a marked improvement in water levels over last year.