Every week, the Central Water Commission release the “live storage” data. By this the Commission means the quantity of water stored in what are called the 91 major reservoirs of India. From this group of what are also called the big dams – they are the biggest in the country – 37 have hydro-electric power plants attached that use the flow of water to generate electricity.
Together the 91 reservoirs can store, if they were full, 157.799 billion cubic metres (BCM). This amount is calculated as being about 62% of the entire “live storage” capacity of 253 BCM which is estimated to have been built as dams in India.
The CWC’s latest bulletin of 13 April 2016 delivers to us an immediate warning: the water stored in these major reservoirs together is under a quarter of their full storage level. The combined quantity stands at 35.839 BCM, which is 23% of the total live storage capacity of these reservoirs. This quantity is 67% of what was stored at this time last year, and is 77% of the average for ten years that is stored at this time of the year. This means we have less stored water compared with last year and compared with the ten year average for this time of year.
Here follows our sequence of alerts put out over the @indiaclimate Twitter feed:
Today, the 91 major reservoirs together hold 35.83 billion cubic metres (bcm) of #water. When all full they can hold 157.79 bcm
— Indiaclimate (@Indiaclimate) April 16, 2016
The total #water stored now is 23% of full storage by all the 91 reservoirs, and is 67% of the storage at this time last year. — Indiaclimate (@Indiaclimate) April 16, 2016
And moreover the total #water stored now is 77% of the average storage at this time for the last ten years. Now for the charts.
— Indiaclimate (@Indiaclimate) April 16, 2016
Water saving measures must immediately be followed by all households. Town and city municipal corporations and councils must immediately ask residents to reduce their use of water especially on activities like washing cars, watering lawns and swimming pools. District administrations need to immediately implement contingency plans for conserving water.
This chart shows the full reservoir level (blue) and current #water storage level (orange) for dams (by size) 69-91 pic.twitter.com/9LGQIddla6 — Indiaclimate (@Indiaclimate) April 16, 2016
Second chart: full reservoir level (blue) and current #water storage level (orange) for dams (by size) 46-68 pic.twitter.com/liMPJKoqfY
— Indiaclimate (@Indiaclimate) April 16, 2016
Third chart: full reservoir level (blue) and current #water storage level (orange) for dams (by size) 23-45 pic.twitter.com/CKjHboXIF4 — Indiaclimate (@Indiaclimate) April 16, 2016
Fourth chart: full reservoir level (blue) and current #water storage level (orange) for dams (by size) 1-22 pic.twitter.com/1UcvS5QJrE
— Indiaclimate (@Indiaclimate) April 16, 2016
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