State tells dam authorities to prolong use of water till Aug 31

Kolhapur: State govt has directed the irrigation authorities across Maharashtra to prolong the use of available water stock in the dams till Aug 31, unlike the normal years, when the dam authorities plan utilization of water by June-end.Also, dams across Maharashtra have more or less adequate stock to ease the possible condition of water scarcity. The live storage is 53% as against last year's 47%.Ministers Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, who is the minister of water resources department for Godavari Marathwada and Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation, and Girish Mahajan, minister for WRD for Vidharbha, Tapi and Konkan's corporation, have written to the authorities about prolonging the utilization of water citing the El Nino condition."The El Nino condition is likely to set in and the rainfall activity will be less as per the IMD. Authorities should ensure that the dams have adequate water for drinking till Aug 31. The authorities should ensure water availability especially during the festivals," read the letter by the ministers.According to the US national weather agency, there is a 62% chance of El Nino emerging by June-Aug which will subsequently rise to over 80%. El Nino is a weather event in which unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean is observed which leads to weakening of the winds carrying monsoon rains. The IMD in its Feb bulletin has maintained that it is closely monitoring the evolving El Nino conditions."We have to set aside water stock for drinking, irrigation and hydropower. For hydropower, 67 TMC is annually reserved out of which 41 TMC has already been utilized. Currently, the Koyna dam has 56 TMC stock left out of which even if the entire quota for power generation is used, around 10 TMC will still be left. Therefore, prolonging the water use is possible without curtailing the quotas for irrigation and hydropower," M M Rasankar, executive engineer of Koyna Irrigation Division, said.A senior WRD official, requesting anonymity, said, "We have sufficient water stock, and in case of emergency, the dead stock will be brought to use."Water Rationing In Cities?According to sources, municipal corporations across Maharashtra are going to resort to rationing with an aim to conserve water from their allocated quota.The last 10 year's data shows that such rationing kicks in April and May, many municipal corporations such as Mumbai, Pune, Thane, Nashik, Nagpur and Kolhapur have resorted to rationing multiple times during the last 10 years. Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, however, is an exception and is continuously in rationing mode for more than 10 years.