Mumbai, May 23

The administration and people in drought-hit Marathwada are pinning hopes on the monsoon as only 1 per cent water is left in the dams of the parched region.

“There is only 1 per cent water left in the dams in Marathwada region,” said Aurangabad Divisional Commissioner Umakant Dangat.

“We are also using the groundwater stock. The IMD’s forecast is good and we hope that we will be able to carry on till the monsoon arrives. We have acquired wells and borewells for water supply,” the senior IAS official said.

He expressed confidence that the administration would be able to supply water from the Jaikwadi dam to Aurangabad till July-end, by which time the monsoon would arrive.

Around 3,600 water tankers are being used to supply water to drought-affected villages and hamlets in the region.

This is the fourth year of drought in Marathwada in the last five years. Each of its 8,522 villages has been affected for two consecutive years. Latur in the region has been getting water by a special water train.

Around 400 cattle fodder camps are now operational in Beed, Latur, Osmanabad and Ahmednagar districts, officials said.

To save water for drinking, power generation shut at Narmada dam

• To save water for drinking and irrigation, the Narmada dam authority has kept six 250-MW hydropower turbines shut for over six months now, causing a sharp drop in power generation as against an all-time high record achieved in 2013-14, an official said
• The six river bed power house (RBPH) turbines, which are situated on the bed of Narmada downstream the Sardar Sarovar Dam at Kevadia, have been out of operation since October last year due to poor rainfall recorded last year
• "The decision to keep the RBPH shut is based on water audit by the Narmada Control Authority , which takes into consideration water availability across reservoirs in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat,” a Sardar Sarvar Narmada Nigam Ltd official said