Reservoirs run low after dry winter in most states

Hot, parched conditions amid the six-week-long general elections, which could expose people to potentially deadly heat, has also taken a toll on large water bodies critical for irrigation, power generation and drinking.

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Only one out of every seven reservoirs in India this week had a storage level higher than 50% of its live capacity, showed the data. Live capacity, a hydrological parameter, refers to the usable volume of water, in contrast to dead storage, which is the bottom-most zone of a water body.

Karnataka has struggled with a water shortage since February. Blistering temperatures, far exceeding 40°C, have dried up lakes and water bodies in south India. Several reservoirs in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are on the verge of drying out. "What we need are pre-monsoon showers. The situation is critical," said Revathi Reddy, an official of the Andhra Pradesh water department.

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The dry conditions were exacerbated by lack of winter and early-summer rainfall, with the country receiving 18% below-normal rainfall since March, according to IMD.

To be sure, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on April 15 said India will get a bountiful June-September monsoon this year, which will be above average by 6%. The rains however are still more than a month away.

Alarmingly, in 42 of the 150 nationally important reservoirs, which are mostly in the south, water volumes have dropped to 17%.

Overall, latest official data shows that water storage in the 150 reservoirs that play an important role in both agriculture and industry has dropped to 31% of their live capacity from 33% last week and 35% in the week before.

Storage in seven reservoirs in the southern states have entered the "dead zone", which is the bottom-most part of a water body, said a Union Jal Shakti ministry official.

The water crisis has been stoked by last year's peaking El Nino that the Bureau of Meteorology Australia officially declared "over" this week. An El Nino weather pattern, whose effects ripple around the globe, is marked by an abnormal warming of the Pacific Ocean and brings dry weather to the Indian subcontinent.

Volumes in 49 reservoirs in the western region have plummeted to 34%, while in the 10 major water bodies in the north, they have fallen to 32.5% of their live capacity.

According to the Central Water Commission's live storage status, in the 150 reservoirs, the storage was 56.085 billion cubic metres (BCM) out of a total capacity of 178.784 BCM. In At least 126 of these, the storage is below 50%.

The 56.085 billion cubic metres currently available is 17% lower than the corresponding period last year (67.575 BCM) and 3.5% lower than the average of the last 10 years (58.166 BCM).

Crops sown in early summer, known as the zaid season, are shriveling. "Farming expenses have gone up because of higher use of diesel and electric pumps to save rice and horticulture too," said Raja Moria of Samaj Pragati Sahayog, Devas, Madhya Pradesh.

The three main crops affected in states such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, are paddy, pulses and millets, experts said. Another danger is that the dry run could delay sowing of kharif or summer-sown paddy, Moria said.

A heatwave that gripped parts of east India, Gangetic West Bengal and Odisha last week has yet to subside, according to the India Meteorological Department.

There is very little water in Yeluru reservoir in Andhra Pradesh and Nagarjuna Sagar, which also caters to Telangana, an official said, adding the Somasila reservoir is on the verge of running dry. In neighbouring Telangana, the Priyadarshini Jurala and Kaddam reservoirs are drying out.

The Kadem project reservoir on the river Kadem, a tributary river of Godavari, in Nirmal district, Telangana, caters to irrigation needs in Nirmal and Mancherial districts, where agriculture has suffered.