Proving to be Godsend, widespread rainfall in past two days has led to a significant improvement in scarcity situation of the state, said a senior government official on Monday.
Proving to be Godsend, widespread rainfall in past two days has led to a significant improvement in scarcity situation of the state, said a senior government official on Monday.
Earlier this month, Gujarat government had declared 152 talukas that had received less than 150mm rainfall in the current season as scarcity-hit. The number of such talukas has now come down to about 90 as many of them have received heavy to extremely heavy rains in past couple of days.
“The situation has improved a great deal. We expect number of scarcity-hit talukas to go down further because of continuing rains,” said DJ Pandian, principal secretary of state revenue department.
Most of the talukas that are no longer in the scarcity-hit category are in north, central and south Gujarat regions. They have received almost non-stop rains since Saturday night.
The scarcity situation, however, continues to be grim in Kutch and Saurashtra because rains have continued to elude the two regions. Most of the talukas that are still scarcity-hit are from Saurashtra but officials are hopeful of improvement in the situation as rainfall advances.
According to officials, rainfall in the last two days will come as a big boost to fodder availability, and will act as breather for agriculture sector. “The crops that were on the verge of withering away due to lack of rains have got a new lease of life,” said officials.
Meanwhile, water storage in Gujarat dams has improved sharply in the last couple of days. “Dams in the state are now 67% full as compared to 61% three days ago. Many of the major dams have received good inflows. There is adequate water to meet drinking water requirement of the state for the whole year,” said an official.
However, Kutch and Saurashtra continue to be problem areas with dams at only 16.7% and 7.3% capacity.
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