This story is from July 28, 2019

Heavy rains fail to push up water level in Marathwada dams

Water levels in most dams in the state have increased following heavy rains in the past two days, but the situation remains grim in drought-hit Marathwada, where 964 reservoirs currently have just 0.81% live storage as compared to 17.82% last year.
Heavy rains fail to push up water level in Marathwada dams
Water stock in dams in Nagpur and Amaravati divisions in Vidarbha region remained low as compared to last year.
PUNE: Water levels in most dams in the state have increased following heavy rains in the past two days, but the situation remains grim in drought-hit Marathwada, where 964 reservoirs currently have just 0.81% live storage as compared to 17.82% last year.
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The Marathwada region has been reeling under severe water crisis. The parched region has received just 22.9% of annual rainfall so far, as compared to the expected 52%.
The 45 major dams in Marathwada, including Jayakwadi, have 0.29% water in storage compared to 21.12% last year. The 81 medium dams in the region have 2.55% water stock, whereas small dams hold 1.09% water in storage.
In contrast, water levels at Koyna dam in Satara went up by 5 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) in just 24 hours. Even Gangapur dam, which provides water to Nashik city, is filled up to 72%, while water stock in dams that supply water to Pune added 2.7 TMC water in 24 hours.
Continuous rainfall in the catchment areas of almost all dams in Western Maharashtra has pushed up water levels. Koyna, a key dam in the region with 100TMC storage capacity, holds 58TMC water now. The dam recorded over 200 mm rainfall in 24 hours till Saturday morning. Last year, on the same day, the dam was filled up to 84TMC.
The Radhanagari dam in Kolhapur district was filled to 84% (7TMC) of its total capacity of 8.36TMC on Saturday. Out of around 14 medium to major dams in the district, three have filled up to 100% of their capacity, while rest have already crossed at least 50% of their mark in terms of storage capacity.

Consistent heavy rains since Friday saw water levels at Gangapur dam complex touching 76% by Saturday evening. “We hope to see good rains for a couple of more days. More rains are needed in the catchment areas of Gautami, Godavari and Kashyapi rivers to resolve drinking water crisis in Nashik,” the water resources department officer said.
The situation in the other parts of Nashik district, however, remained worrisome. Six dams still do not have any water because the catchment areas have not received any rain. Last year, only two of these dams had zero storage during this time.
Water stock in dams in Nagpur and Amaravati divisions in Vidarbha region remained low as compared to last year. The collective stock in dams in Nagpur division was at 9.35% as compared to last years’ storage of 38.28%, while reservoirs in Amravati had 8.92% water stock as against 33.78% in 2018. Amaravati division has a total of 446 major, medium and minor dams, while Nagpur division has 384 dams.
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