Rainfall surplus,but dams only 65 per cent full

Having already crossed the average rainfall mark for the season,the city is all set to see more rainy days with an active south-west monsoon bringing in more rainfall to the state. Pune city’s average seasonal rainfall for June-September is 540 mm and the present average uptil August 29 is 678.6 mm. However,with the dams not reaching the 100 per cent mark,the water storage is not sufficient to last till the next year.Even with such excessive rainfall activity,the irrigation department have warned that the dams presently only have a 65 per cent storage.

“The dams should be 100 per cent full to be comfortable. We release nearly 14 TMC water for drinking consumption to the city while 16 TMC are released for agriculture purpose. Even with the continuing rainfall,the storage level and the rainfall activity have not helped the dams achieve the 100 per cent mark,”said SN Bolbhat,executive engineer Khadakwasla irrigation division. On Sunday the dam levels were at 19.01 TMC. The live storage of the dams were at Temghar at 2.04 TMC,Varasgaon at 8.97 TMC,Panshet at 8.10 TMC and Khadakwasla at 0.8 TMC. Presently the percentage of live storage in the four dams were at Temghar at 57 per cent,Varasgaon at 63 per cent,Panshet at 76 per cent and Khadakwasla at 40 per cent. “We are scheduled for more rains in the coming two days with a very active monsoon trough in the Arabian sea,as well as another low pressure area that has developed over the north-west Bay of Bengal. The off shore trough extending from south Gujarat to Kerala coast will see increased rainfall activity,” said director (weather) central Medha Khole.

The Met department has recorded an all India rainfall of 98 per cent,with a deficiency of two percent. However,the state has seen good rainfall in all the four divisions-Konkan and Goa has recorded 13 per cent excess rainfall,Madhya Maharashtra has recorded 14 per cent excess rainfall,Marathwada has recorded excess of 28 per cent,while Vidarbha region has had 18 per cent excess rainfall for the monsoon season.

Several hill stations in the state have recorded very good rainfall over the last three months. On August 29 the Met department recorded 56.9 mm rainfall for the city while the highest rainfall for the city was recorded on June 14 with 10 cm rain.