Will Pune face a water crisis this year? District collector hopes villages will require fewer tankers
In the Pune division, 93 tankers are supplying water to 81 villages now, with 1.39 lakh people relying on the supply.
Water tankers have become a way of life in most areas across Pune city. (File Photo) As summer progresses, the biggest question before Puneites is whether the district will face a water crisis.
District Collector Jitendra Dudi hopes that this year the water situation will be comfortable enough to keep tankers at a minimum before the monsoon hits Maharashtra.
Last year, good monsoon rain left the dams in the state full. Pune was no exception, with all the dams in the district being filled to capacity. As of Wednesday, the dams in the division have 34.87 per cent of their full capacity. The water level on the same day last year was 30.70 per cent.
In the division, besides Pune, districts such as Solapur, Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur also have dams. Koyna, the largest dam in the region, is 40.65 per cent full, which is more or less the same as last year–40.02 per cent. The Pune region has 35 dams and their total water capacity is 15,394.75 million cubic metres.
Jitendra Dudi said the district might not require water tankers in large numbers this year. “We hope that fewer villages will require tankers this time. The water tables in villages have also risen,” he said.
In the Pune division, 93 tankers are supplying water to 81 villages as of Wednesday. Satara has the largest number of such villages (45), followed by Pune (30), with 1.39 lakh people relying on tankers for their water needs.
Will higher temperatures play spoilsport?
But what is worrying people is the unusually high temperatures experienced over the last few months. Anupam Kashyapi, former head of weather forecasting at the India Meteorological Department, said this would accelerate evaporation losses from the reservoirs.
“One of the main reasons for the heat is the lack of what we call summer rain. Summer rain recharges groundwater as well as replenishes waterbodies,” he said. “This has not happened in many parts. Summer has started early with this January being one of the hottest in the last 10 years. For most of February and March, the temperature has been exceptionally high with the mercury crossing the 40 degree Celsius mark on multiple occasions.”
Irrigation officials have pointed out that most canals are open and there will be evaporation losses once water is supplied through them, Kashyapi added.
Farmers say that despite last year’s exceptionally good rains, groundwater has depleted faster than expected.
Rahul Pawar, a farmer from Daund taluka, said farmers were surviving thanks to water released from the Khadakwasla dam systems.
“Yes, the rains were good last year, but what happened was that instead of percolating, the rainwater mostly resulted in surface runoff,” he said, referring to the condition where rainwater flows over the ground to lower ground and then to waterbodies when there is extreme rain in a short duration. “Already borewells in some of the areas have gone dry,” the farmer added.
The rains were good but fewer days witnessed rainfall above 2.4 mm in 24 hours. This meant that there was heavy rainfall in short periods. “As summer progresses, the need for tankers might arise in areas where there is no source of irrigation and borewells are drying up fast. Heavy rain in a short time is the culprit,” Rahul Pawar said.
Adding to their worries is the above-average evaporation loss due to the extreme heat. The present temperature in Pune has been above 40 degrees Celsius for extended periods.
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