With more than 88% of the country receiving normal or excess monsoon rainfall so far, the water level at 91 large reservoirs continues to rise.
According to data released by the Central Water Commission (CWC) on Thursday, the water level at 91 large reservoirs rose for six weeks in a row to 61% of their combined capacity. A week back the water reservoirs were filled up to 54% of their capacity.
“The overall storage position is better than the corresponding period of last year in the country as a whole and is also better than the average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period,” the CWC said in a statement.
With the exception of northern regions comprising six big reservoirs located in Punjab, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh, water level at reservoirs located in all other regions has surpassed last year’s period till now.
Meanwhile, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said that monsoon rains have been 26% less than the benchmark — Long Period Average (LPA) for the week ending on Wednesday. However, the Met department said that a ‘depression’ lies over extreme southwest Bihar, adjoining west Jharkhand, southeast Uttar Pradesh and north Chhattisgarh.
It said the system is likely to move west-northwestwards and gradually weaken into a depression during next 24 hours and subsequently into a low pressure area. “Heavy to very heavy rain are likely over west Madhya Pradesh, east Rajasthan, west Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat region and Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura,” IMD said in its bulletin.
According to IMD, the quantum of rainfall during June 1-August 18 has been more than 612 millimetre (mm) which is on a par with LPA.
Till now, 25% of the country’s area has got ‘excess’ rainfall while 63% have received ‘normal’ rainfall. Only 12% of the areas have received ‘deficient’ rainfall. With the exception of Punjab, Kerala and Gujrat regions where rainfall has been ‘deficient’, most of the regions across the country has so far received ‘normal’ or ‘excess’ monsoon rainfall in the country.
Earlier in the month, IMD stated that rainfall during second half (August – September) would be ‘above normal’ at 107% of LPA, with a model error of ± 8%.
The Met department also reiterated its June’s forecast by stating that overall rainfall during monsoon season (June-September) will be 106% of LPA which is set to give huge boost to kharif agricultural activities following two successive years of ‘deficient’ monsoon (2014 & 2015).