At 42 pc, water stock in Maha dams 3-times more than last year
The state had faced successive years of drought overthe past few years. However, most parts of the state hadreceived good rainfall last year.
According to a Maharashtra government report of May15, the 3,267 major, medium and minor projects across thestate collectively reported live (useful) storage of 17,066.71million cubic metre, which is 41.73 per cent of their totalcapacity of holding 40,897.95 million cubic metres live stock.
On May 15 last year, the collective stock availableacross these dams was 14.92 per cent.
Some major dams, including Manjara (in Beed) in theMarathwada region, which witnesses parched swathes during thesummer, however, have run out of their useful content thisyear as they had in the last season too.
The nine major dams in the Aurangabad division ofMarathwada have 1,798.89 million cubic metre stock till now,which is 43.9 per cent of 4,097.77 million cubic metrecollective storage capacity of live storage.
Last year, the stock available across these dams inAurangabad, Beed, Hingoli, Nanded, Osmanabad and Parbhanidistricts was just 0.44 per cent.
The Jayakwadi dam at Paithan in Aurangabad district, akey project in the region, had dried (in terms of live stock)last year. However, this year, it has reported a big leap of1,017.91 million cubic metre live stock, that is 46.89 percent of its capacity of holding 2,170.93 million cubic metreuseful storage.
Similarly, the dams in Majalgaon (Beed), Yeldari andSiddeshwar (Hingoli) and Lower Terna (Osmanabad) recordedrelatively better stock this year.
The dams like Manjara, Sina Kolegaon (Osmanabad) andLower Dudhana dams, however, have run out of their usefulstock as they had last year.
The 10 major dams in the Amravati division ofVidarbha, which too witnessed dry stretches when thetemperature soared, have at present 1,190.48 million cubicmetre live stock, that is 47.95 per cent of their collectiveuseful storage of 2,482.65 million cubic metre.
On the same day last year, the total useful stockavailable at these dams in the division- which coversdistricts such as Akola, Amravati, Buldhana and Yavatmal- was16 per cent.
The Khadakpurna and Pentakali dams, which ran intodead storage last year, have reported 29.35 per cent and 81.83per cent of their respective total useful stock holdingcapacity now.
In the Nagpur division of the region, the live stockavailable in the 15 major dams was 1,755.41 million cubicmetre, that is, 51.34 per cent of their collective 3,418.87million cubic metre live stock.
In 2019, the live stock available on the correspondingday in the dams in the division that covers districts likeBhandara, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli and Gondia, besides Nagpurwas 6.95 per cent.
The Gosikhurd (Bhandara) and Nand (Nagpur) dams, whichhad no live stock left last year, have reported availabilityof 15.62 per cent and 22.7 per cent of their respective usefulstorage holding capacity.
The Dina dam in Gadchiroli has no live water stockleft in it this year too.
The six dams in the Konkan region- comprising Palghar,Sindhudurg and Thane- have 49.28 per cent (892.44 millioncubic metre) of their collective 1,683.65 million cubic metrecapacity live stock as against 31.02 per cent last year.
Nashik division's 24 dams together haveavailable1,591.86 million cubic metre (42.58 per cent) of their3,738.75 million cubic metre collective live stock holdingcapacity.
In the previous year, the stock available in theregion that covers districts like Ahmednagar, Jalgaon andNashik, was 11.71 per cent.
The Pune region with 29 dams has 4,528.3 million cubicmetre (40.14 per cent) live stock available at present of thetotal live stock holding capacity of 11,281.44 million cubicmetre.
Last year, the live stock available across these damsin Kolhapur, Pune, Sangli, Satara and Solapur was 13.57 percent.
The Dimbhe, Ghod (Chinchani), Pimpalgaon Joge andWadaj dams in Pune and Bhima (Ujjani) project in Solapur,which had recorded 0 per cent live stock, are all betterplaced this year, according to the data.
The Temghar dam in Pune, which also reported 0 percent stock last year, has 2.12 per cent live stock availablethis year. ENMNP NP