With the water level decreasing in all five regions of the country below 90 per cent, the storage in the major 166 Indian reservoirs dropped to 80 per cent of the capacity this week. This is the seventh week in a row that the storage has declined.
Data from the Centra (CWC) showed that the level in the key reservoirs was 147.040 billion cubic metres (BCM) or 80.10% per cent of the total live storage capacity of 183.565 BCM. Compared with last year, it was nearly 7 per cent higher than a year ago, and 23 per cent more than the normal (last 10 years).
Data from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) showed that rain last week was 65 per cent deficient with the Central zone receiving no rain and the southern peninsula getting just 5 per cent of what it got last year. In the east and north-east, the deficiency was 96 per cent. However, post-monsoon rainfall between October 1 and December 24 was 14 per cent surplus.
