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Heavy to medium rainfall continued to pound Pune and its surrounding regions for the second consecutive day on Wednesday. Thanks to the rainfall, dam levels have seen significant jump, which led to discharge from the Khadakwasla dam for the first time this season.
As of 5.30pm on Wednesday, Lavasa received highest rainfall of 106mm, followed by Lavale at 98mm. The popular hillstation of Lonavala recorded 95mm rain. Pune district has received 567.2mm rainfall since the onset of the monsoon season as against the normal of 420.1mm of rainfall.
At present, the monsoon trough is passing through Bikaner, Sikar, Gwalior, Ranchi and Digha. This has resulted in renewal of the monsoon activity which has resulted in heavy rainfall across the state. IMD in its forecast had issued an orange alert for the ghat regions of Pune and its surrounding regions with heavy to very heavy rainfall being forecasted. This alert has been sounded for Thursday also.
Thanks to the heavy rainfall, dam levels in and around Pune have shown a significant rise. Thus, Khadakwasla reported 98 per cent full, which led to the gates of the dam being opened for discharge of around 15,000 cusec of water.
Other dams such as Warasgaon was 53.77 per cent full compared to 3.37 per cent during the same period last year. Panshet (68.60/2.98) per cent Temghar (49.56/38.93) per cent have also reported higher water levels than last year.
Pavana dam, which supplies water to the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, was 68.60 per cent full as compared to 2.98 per cent of last year.
Given the forecast of good rains, Pune’s dam levels are expected to be filled soon.
The city’s water crisis can soon be history if the dam levels continue to increase at this rate.
