Vidarbha’s reservoirs drying up

Mumbai: As the state is reeling under the summer swelter, the water level of reservoirs in Vidarbha has been falling at an alarming rate.

The region's Amravati division is left with only 19.34 per cent of water in its reservoirs whereas the Nagpur division has just 17.44 per cent water left, according to data compiled by the state's irrigation department.

In comparison, Marathwada has enough water to tide it over summer as it had seen good rain last year.

There are 3,246 irrigation projects in the state and they held 484,000 million cubic (TMC) of water till April 24, which is 33.86 per cent of the capacity of reservoirs.

According to the irrigation department's data, Vidarbha is facing a serious challenge in terms of water supply. The region has two sub-divisions: Amravati and Nagpur.

In the former, there is only 19.34 per cent water left in reservoirs; this division has 10 big irrigation projects, which have only 15.83 per cent water whereas, in 24 middle-range irrigation project, only 24.49 per cent water is left. In the Nagpur division, 17.44 per cent water is present in reservoirs. There are 16 mega irrigation projects here, which contain 16.86 per cent water, and 42 middle-range projects, where only 20.81 per cent water is left.

In Marathwada, the Jayakwadi Dam mega project has around 60.83 TMC water, which is a vast amount compared to the last three years, when the region was beset by drought. On the other hand, irrigation projects such as Manjara and Majalgaon are seeing rapid decline in water level.

In the region there are 44 big projects, 81 medium projects and 832 small projects whose water levels are 33.23 per cent, 30.55 per cent and 26.35 per cent respectively.  Other regions such as Western Maharashtra, Konkan and North Maharashtra are comparatively better off than Vidarbha.

The water levels in reservoirs in North Maharashtra, Western Maharashtra and Konkan is 35 per cent, 38 per cent and 50 per cent respectively, according to the irrigation department.