North Indian reservoirs run dry as summer sets in

North India saw good rains last week, but its reservoirs are precariously deficit. The total live storage now is 3.62 BCM (billion cubic metres), which is 20% of capacity. The storage during the corresponding period last year was 23% and the average storage of the last 10 years during the corresponding period was 27% of live storage capacity.

“Thus, the storage during the current year is less than the corresponding period of last year and is also less than the average storage of the last 10 years during the corresponding period,” the Central Water Commission (CWC) said in its weekly note. The northern region includes Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan. There are six reservoirs under CWC monitoring, having a total live storage capacity of 18.01 BCM.

Poor pre-monsoon rain last month contributed to the water shortage. According to figures from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), north-west India, which normally gets 5.9 cm of rain from March 1 to April 12, got only 3.4 cm — a 42% decline.

A national problem

The water shortage in reservoirs is a national problem. According to data available from the CWC, storage in 91 major reservoirs for the week ending on April 12, 2018 was 40.857 BCM which is 25% of total storage capacity. This is lower than the 27% for the week ending April 5, 2018. The level of water storage in the week ending on April 12, 2018 was 84% of the storage of the corresponding period of last year and 90% of storage of the average of last ten years.

The total storage capacity of these 91 reservoirs is 161.993 BCM, which is about 63% of the total storage capacity of 257.812 BCM estimated to have been created in the country; 37 reservoirs out of these 91 have hydropower benefit with installed capacity of more than 60 MW. The decline in storage comes on the back of warnings of a scorching summer. The summer months from March-May will be “warmer” than normal and several parts of north India, at least a degree hotter than their average summer temperatures, the IMD had said in its annual forecast. The ‘normal’ temperatures refer to the mean temperatures during those months between 1981 and 2010.

While rains are necessary to increase storage in the reservoirs, farmers in the north-west are anxious. Widespread rain during the past few days in parts of Punjab and Haryana could delay the harvesting of the standing wheat crop by at least a week, officials told The Hindu on Wednesday. This, even as a fresh western disturbance could bring more rain in the region on April 15 and 16. While the IMD hasn’t yet announced its monsoon forecast, private agencies have said India is likely to get a normal monsoon.