Explained: Healthy stock in reservoirs

Live storage as of July 7

Region by region

Ten dams in the Northern Region — in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan — have 24% of their total live storage capacity, or 4.79 BCM. At this time last year, the stock was 18%. For comparison, the ten-year average is 33% of the live storage capacity in these 10 reservoirs.

In the 21 reservoirs of the Eastern Region (Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Tripura, Nagaland and Bihar), whose total live storage capacity is 20.09 BCM, the available live storage on July 7 was 3.66 BCM (18%) — less than in July 2021 (32%) and less than the ten-year average (24%).

River basins: Top 3 and bottom 3

In the Western Region (Gujarat and Maharashtra), which have 46 reservoirs monitored by the CWC, the current storage is at 26% of total ive capacity (9.36 BCM available out of 36.41 BCM total capacity), which is less than the 29% of July 2021.

In the Central Region (Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh), the 26 reservoirs together have 14.57 BCM or 30% of the total live storage capacity, which is higher than in July 2021 and the ten-year average of 26%.

The Southern Region (Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka) has 40 reservoirs. Their combined stock is 40% of their total live storage capacity, compared to 41% in July last year, but much higher than the ten-year average of 23%.

Most reservoirs at 80% of normal

Forecast

With the southwest monsoon in the active phase since June 30, and widespread rainfall forecast during the next five days over most regions of the country, reservoir stocks are set to get further replenished. In the last one week itself, many dams in Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra have seen their stocks rise significantly.

Southwest monsoon rainfall has been below normal so far from East Uttar Pradesh (–48%), Gangetic West Bengal (–46%), Jharkhand (–43%), Kerala (–35%), Madhya Maharashtra (–24%), Odisha (–22%), Gujarat (–21%). Good rain spells will need to continue to make up for deficit stocks in dams along some of these states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. On the other hand, larger states like Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, as well as Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Nagaland, have better stocks than last year.