With the State government declaring a total of 994 villages as “scarcity-affected”, and most of 200-odd dams witnessing fast depleting water levels in scorching summer, Gujarat, on Thursday, appeared to be heading towards being officially declared drought-affected.
The government had, in early April, declared 526 villages scarcity-hit or semi-scarcity-affected and then, early this week, added another 468 to the list after the Supreme Court chided the Anandiben Patel government for submitting just a note, instead of an affidavit, on the drought situation.
Most of these affected villages are in the Saurashtra and Kutch regions. Ironically, the North Gujarat region, home to both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, is yet to be included in the list of partially or fully scarcity-hit areas, despite several areas there reporting acute water crisis.
As summer peaks, the number of affected villages is likely to soar to over 2,500, or 15 per cent out of nearly 18,000, by mid-May. Water bodies have a combined storage capacity of 50,100 MCM. Water in 202 reservoirs, at present, is at the level of 4,153.26 MCM, excluding the Narmada dam, which is just 26 per cent of the total capacity. Altogether, 132 reservoirs now have less than 10 per cent water, 31 have 10- 20 per cent and 37 have 20-50 per cent.
The Sardar Sarovar dam stores 4,188 MCM of water, nearly 80 per cent of its total storage capacity of 5,265 MCM. Gujarat draws nearly 56 MCM of Narmada waters daily from this dam in central Gujarat.
If the present level of consumption of 290 MCM continues, these dams would be left with water only for the next fortnight, even as the first monsoon showers are expected only in mid-June, sources said.
Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasma, who heads the ministerial sub-committee for the assessment of scarcity, said that all necessary steps were being taken to meet the situation and ensure drinking water and fodder for people and cattle.
No need for trains
New bore-wells and hand pumps were being sunk and water would be provided through tankers, wherever necessary. He said, as of now, Gujarat did not need water trains like Maharashtra.
Water Resources Minister Vijay Rupani said some of the districts facing water crisis, like Amreli, Banaskantha and Kutch, cannot, as of now, be declared “drought-affected” as parts of these districts had received adequate or excessive monsoon rainfall last year. But, it was basically a heavy downpour in a short duration, leaving areas flooded but with little water flowing into dams.
Of the 17,843 villages in the State, nearly 8,050 are connected with the Narmada Canal while another 3,653 get their water from other sources.
Officials said the State has nearly 3.5 crore kg of grass and fodder in stock and has the capacity to prepare one crore kg of cattle-feed.
On Thursday, the State government decided to start grass and cattle-feed depots at taluka headquarters of the affected villages for cattle and livestock.