Gujarat continues to be battered by heavy rains, prompting authorities to put more than 100 dams and reservoirs on high alert.
The State has put more than half of its water bodies on high alert following heavy water inflows at the reservoirs as rains continue unabated, exceeding more than 110 % of the season’s total rainfall.
As per the latest update, out of the 204 reservoirs in the State, 114 dams have been put on ‘high alert’ with over 90% filling.
The Sardar Sarovar dam on Narmada river, whose full capacity is 138.6m, is also put on high alert with water level at 136m. It is expected to touch full capacity soon, as the heavy inflow continues, following fresh rains in upper catchment areas in Madhya Pradesh.
The authorities have released more than a million cusec water from the reservoir. As a result, more than 200 villages in Narmada, Bharuch and Vadodara districts have been put on alert.
Gujarat has so far received total rainfall of 926.59 mm, which is 13.5% more than its Long-Period Average (LPA) of 816 mm.
This year, rainfall picked up in August, when it received 446 mm rainfall. So far in September, the State has received 150 mm rains.
Rainfall received during the first two months of monsoon, June and July, were 109mm and 222mm respectively.
On Tuesday, heavy downpour in Ahmedabad city disrupted normal life as most of the roads were waterlogged, affecting traffic movements in the city. The civic body has asked people to stay indoors till Wednesday.
Some of the most dry regions in the State, Kutch and Saurashtra received excess rains because of the monsoon picking up in August and September, thereby brightening the prospects for rabi sowing, which begins in winter.
The major rabi crops in the State are wheat, maize, pulses, mustard, cumin seed (jeera) and sugar cane.
India Meteorological Department-Ahmedabad Director Jayanta Sarkar said that the highest rain in Gujarat in this decade in any one year was in 2013 when it was a record 148%.
According to him, this year’s monsoon has been evenly distributed with all major parts receiving good rain.
