Maharashtra was one of the worst-hit states in the country during the drought over the last five years with several dams in the Marathwada and Vidarbha region running dry. However, things are seemingly going to be different this summer as per new data made available by the authorities.
It is said that dams that were at 0% of their capacity are now filled up adequately to last the summer. Jayakwadi Dam which had a stock of 0% last April, today has live water stock of 66.78%.
Further, Khadakpurna Dam which also had zero stock last year now has 50.52% of water stock. The Nalganga Dam water storage was at 10% last year and now stands at 91%. Pentakali Dam appears to be the best equipped right now as it has risen from 0% last year to 82% this year.
Overal, the 3,267 dams across Maharashtra are currently said to be at 53.65% capacity. This accounts to 21,944 mcum of water across the state’s dams. The numbers are up almost two-fold compared to last year which recorded 26.95 per cent of live water stock at dams.
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Digging deeper into the state’s data, it is revealed that 446 dams in the Vidarbha region have live water stock of 48.3% up from 27.22% during the same period last year. Marathwada has a total of 964 dams that reportedly have 46.4% of water now while it only had 5.68% of stock last year. The water stock in Konkan is up from 47.31% last year to 59.94% as of April 2020.
“We are confident that the state will not experience drought this year. There shouldn’t be any reason for water scarcity on the domestic front or for the agriculture sector this summer,” State Water Resources Minister Jayant Patil said.
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