The monsoon has crossed the halfway mark, but there is no positive sign of revival of monsoon. The state reservoirs have got only 22.54% water storage against 37.32% storage last year at the same time.
According to the Maharashtra water resource department, there is no satisfactory rise in the level of state reservoirs water storage. "The Marathawada and Vidarbha region has got the poorest rainfall. As a result, the reservoirs from Vidarbha got only 8.38% storage and abysmal 0.78% storage in Marathwada region against 31.41% and 28.82% storage respectively last year. While North Maharashtra reservoir storage is also not satisfactory that is 17.06% against 28.15% last year. The western Maharashtra and Konkan region received the satisfactory rainfall that resulted in filling reservoirs in these areas. Pune region reservoirs got 35% storage while 56.34% storage in Konkan region," started in its report.
Interestingly, Marathwada got the largest numbers of dams (964), following Vidarbha (830), Pune (726), North Maharashtra ( 571) and Konkan (176). Despite the two month of scanty monsoon, the majority of reservoirs in Marathwada regions got zero percentage of water levels. The biggest dam – Nathsagar at Paithan has water storage is 0.9% this year against 22.07% last year while Terna dam has also got 0.0% storage this year against 42.18% storage last year. Moreover, other reservoirs like Manjara, Majalgaon, Yeldar, Siddheshwar, Nimna Manar has got the zero per centage of water supply as on today.
The sigh of relief in this grim situation is the reservoirs that supplies drinking water to Mumbai has got a significant level of water storage compared to other regions of Maharashtra. Tansa dam storage is 17.37%, Modak Sagar 44.05% while Middle Vaitarna 17.3%. On the other hand, if the last year storage levels checked of these dams are, the picture is more satisfactory. Last year, 99.78% of water storage was in Tansa, 99.97% in Modak Sagar while 82.92% in Middle Vaitarna reservoirs.
Chandrakant Patil, revenue minister said that this year the situation is grim, but government trying to explore other ways to get the rainfall. "We have already floated the tender for the artificial cloud seeding. We are planning to use this technology to get the artificial rainfall in Marathwada and Vidarbha region. This experiment will be carried out in the catchment areas of these drought-prone regions. Besides, people have to also save every drop of water through the rainwater harvesting," Patil said.
Vijay Wadettiwar, Leader of Opposition and the Congress MLA said that last year drought was very severe. "But this year drought seems to be more severe. We have almost crossed the half July but there is no sign of good monsoon. The government should be ready with the contingency plan," Wadettiwar said.
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