Despite sweltering heat, water situation comfortable in Punjab, HP reservoirs

Ravi S.Singh
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, June 2

Reservoirs in the northern region, including Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, have comfortable level of live storage in presently in spite of the blistering summer.

For the week ending May 30, the available storage in the total six reservoirs of the region monitored by the Central Water Commission (CWC) is 7.56 BCM, which is 42 per cent of their total live storage capacity. They have total  storage capacity of 18.01 BCM.

The storage during corresponding period of last year was 14 per cent and the average storage of last 10 years during corresponding period was 25 per cent. This would be good news, especially for farmers.

The storage status of reservoirs of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh looks still better when considered that water level in reservoirs in Rajasthan is below for the corresponding period last year.

Like the northern region, the reservoirs in the states of central region, including Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, are also better placed than the last year and the average storage of last 10 years during  the corresponding period.

At the national level, the water storage available in the CWC-monitored 91 major reservoirs consisting of all the regions in the country for the week ending May 30 was 31.65 BCM, which is 20 per cent of total storage capacity of these reservoirs.

In effect, it was 114 per cent of the storage of corresponding period of last year and 103 per cent of storage of average of last 10 years.

The total storage capacity of these 91 reservoirs is 161.993 BCM which his about 63 per cent of the total storage capacity of 257.812 BCM which is estimated to have been created in the country.

As many as 37 reservoirs have hydropower benefit with installed capacity of more than 60 MW.