Chandigarh, September 17
The share of water to Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan stands reduced and this reduction will remain in effect till May next year, or largely till the monsoons start. The worst hit will be Rajasthan where water will be available only for drinking purposes. The three states have been informed about the situation by the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) which took stock of the position this morning before finally calculating the reduced shares of water.
This reduction in the release of water has come about as the levels of water in the reservoirs at the Bhakra and Pong dams has been recorded at 24 feet and 53 feet, respectively, below the normal level till this morning. The official filling season of the two massive reservoirs ends on Friday night. Even the Ranjit Sagar Dam on the river Ravi has recorded a level of 1673 feet, which is 68 feet below normal.
Rains in the past days have helped but not as much as desired. A month ago poor rainfall had sent alarm bells ringing as it would have created a crisis of providing drinking water, leave alone providing water for irrigation. Still there is a big shortfall. The catchment area of the Bhakra dam received 674 mm of rain against the normal of 846 mm. This was 80 per cent of the normal. In the catchment of the Pong dam the rain was 1014 mm against the normal of 1578 mm. This is just 64 per cent of the normal.
The failure of rains has led to the situation, explained the Chairman of BBMB, Mr Rakesh Nath. ‘‘We have to do with reduced shares as there is no other option,’’ he added in a very unambiguous tone. ‘‘The water has to be managed. In the past we have had to dip into the storage which is carried forward for the next year. Now this will not be done,’’ Mr Nath added.
The water level at the Bhakra reservoir is satisfactory while the
Pong and Ranjit Sagar reservoirs, which are rain fed, have done badly. As Rajasthan enjoys a 49 per cent share of water from Pong it faces the biggest slash in its share. Under normal conditions a portion of the water released from the Ranjit Sagar is channelised into the Ravi-Beas link at Madhopur headworks in Gurdaspur district. In the past two months not a drop of water has come through
the Ravi, sources said. Under the present conditions there is no hope of any water from the Ravi.
Engineers of the BBMB have put the use of water on a ‘‘ caution and care’’ mode to have optimum utilisation till May end next year when the filling season begins. The irrigation as well as power generation requirements have to be kept in mind.
This morning the level in the Bhakra was 1656 elevation feet, 24 feet less than the optimum filling level of 1680 elevation feet and is 8 feet more than the level achieved last year. In the reservoir at Pong Dam the level was 1337 elevation feet, 53 feet below the optimum level of 1390 elevation feet, besides being 34 feet less than the level achieved last year. At present the water level at the Bhakra has been classified as dependable and by BBMB parameters. Just about a month ago the BBMB had put the inflow as ‘‘dry season’’ .
In the past the BBMB has managed with even lesser levels of water. In 1993 the level was at 1628 elevation feet — the lowest ever. Even then everything was managed well without hitting dead level of the dam which is 1462 elevation feet in the Bhakra Dam. Below this level the turbines do not work.
Normally the reservoirs fill up to a few feet short of the optimum level. In the recent past 1998 was the best season when the levels were close to and even beyond the optimum.
The end of the filling season does not mean that inflows have ended. The lesser levels of water also means that Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh will have to do with a lesser share of power and water in the coming months. The share of water and power of the partner states is fixed on the basis of three parameters that change according to the inflow of water in the reservoirs. The three parameters are fixed as dry, dependable and mean. The last being the best followed by dependable and dry conditions.
