Maharashtra: With good rains, Marathwada dams hold enough stock till next monsoon

AURANGABAD: Aurangabad as well as drought-prone Latur, Osmanabad and Beed districts in Marathwada will not face any drinking water scarcity till the next monsoon as different reservoirs in the region have attained their desired storage levels, authorities from the Godavari Marathwada Irrigation Development Corporation (GMIDC) have said.
While the Jayakwadi major irrigation project crossed the two-thirds storage mark on Monday afternoon, most other key water projects from the region have already been overflowing due to the monsoon’s good run.Dams in Marathwada had a collective live storage of 159 TMC by Monday evening as against the designed capacity of 260 TMC, official data shows.
GMIDC executive director Kiran Kulkarni said Marathwada’s dams hold sufficient storage that can cater to the region’s drinking water needs till the next monsoon. “The surplus rainfall across Marathwada this year has satisfactorily improved the storage levels in the dams. Besides catering to drinking water needs, there will hardly be any issue in fulfilling the water requirements of the agricultural sector and industries,” he said.