New Delhi, November 24
After experiencing a deficient monsoon during the kharif season, the northwest is facing another challenge — below normal storage in the six important reservoirs in the region in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan in the ongoing Rabi season.

According to water storage status data released by Central Water Commission (CWC) today, the current storage in the six northern reservoirs is less than the corresponding period last year and also less than the average of the past 10 years.

The total storage capacity of these reservoirs is 18.01 BCM, which, as per the CWC, has dropped to 11.60 BCM — 64 per cent of their total capacity. Notably, the storage during the corresponding period last year was 81 per cent and average of past 10 years 70 per cent of the storage capacity.

In fact, currently the states having better or equal storage to corresponding period last year are Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Tripura, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh are all having less storage — not a very positive situation for either the winter-sown crops wheat, chana, mustard, maize and pulses or the power situation.

Nationwide, storage in 85 important reservoirs as on November 20 was 106.822 BCM — 69 per cent of their total capacity. This figure was 84 per cent at the corresponding period last year.

In other words, the present storage position in the country is less than the storage position of last year and less than the average of past 10 years.

The CWC monitors live storage status of 85 important reservoirs, including 37 having hydropower benefit with installed capacity of more than 60 MW. Their total storage capacity is 155.046 BCM — which is about 61 per cent of the storage capacity of 253.388 BCM estimated to have been created in the country.

The region relatively doing well is the East comprising Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Tripura and the Central India. As per the CWC, 15 reservoirs in the East have 15.08 BCM, which is 80 per cent of their total storage capacity — less than the corresponding period last year, but better than average of the past 10 years.

The Central region comprising Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh with 12 reservoirs currently have 32.84 BCM, which is 78 per cent of their total storage capacity. This is less than the corresponding period last year but better than the average of past 10 years.

In the Western region — Gujarat and Maharashtra — storage during current year is less than the storage of last year and also less than the average of past 10 years.