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The abundant monsoon in Maharashtra has filled all the water bodies, including dams, reservoirs and weirs, almost to full capacity. On Friday, the water level in these reservoirs was 93 per cent, as against 85 per cent on the same day last year.
Every water body has a live storage and dead storage capacity. Dead storage refers to water that cannot be drained by gravity; pumps are needed to draw this water, which is used only in a dire emergency.
According to data prepared by the Maharashtra Government Water Resources Department, the total storage in all the reservoirs stood at 26,600 million cubic metres (Mcum) of live storage on Friday.
Among the six revenue divisions, Amravati was a big gainer with its dams reporting a live storage of 96 per cent as against 49 per cent on the same day last year. Aurangabad is also a big gainer with 87 per cent live water storage, it was 54 per cent on the same day last year.
Surprisingly, the coastal Konkan region, which normally receives heavy to excess rains, had 86 per cent live storage in 11 major dams. Last year the dams had 97 per cent live storage.
Koyna dam, which is one of the largest dams in Maharashtra and a major source of water and about 2,000 MW of hydroelectric power, is almost full with a live storage level of 2,821 Mcum of water, as against a gross storage level of 2,866 Mcum. The current live water storage in the dam is 99.51 per cent, while last year it was marginally higher at 99.78 per cent.
The Jayakwadi dam on the Godavari river in Paitan taluka of Aurangabad district is 100 per cent full. The Executive Engineer of the dam, Rajendra Kale, told BusinesLine that all the 27 doors of the dam were opened on Thursday night due to heavy rains. The discharge from the dam is 94,320 cusec. The water level in the dam has reached 2,878 Mcum.
Cusec is a measure of the rate of water flow. 1 cusec is one cubic foot of water flow per second. It translates into 28.32 litres of water discharge per second.
Jayakwadi is a major water source for local agriculture and industries. The largest beer-making units in the country are located around Aurangabad city, as water from the Godavari is suitable for beer making.
The water supply to Mumbai region is also in good shape with all the seven dams having live storage of over 98 per cent at 14,20,862 million litres.
The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai tabulates the dam water level in million litres.
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