Happy water storage polition in major dams across the country

New Delhi, June 1 (UNI) The water storage position in the country is a happy one for the country where the combined live storage in 76 important reservoirs in the country stood at 51 per cent of their designed capacity on May 24 as against 22 per cent on June 1, 2006.

An official release said the the storage in eight reservoirs was less than the 10 year average while in 58 dams the storage was more than 80 per cent of the average for the same period.

The storage position in the basins of Indus, Ganga, Narmada, Tapi, Mahi, Sabarmati, Krishna, Rivers of Kutch, Godavari, Mahanadi and neighbouring east and west flowing rivers of south was better than previous 10 years. In Cauvery and east flowing rivers the storage was 'normal'.

The dams where the negative storage was found were in Kangsabati in West Bengal and Sriramsagar dam in Andhra Pradesh where the storage was less than Minimum Drawal Level (MDL).

The Central Water Commission (CWC) of Ministry of Water Resources monitors storage in 76 major and medium reservoirs including 31 dams with significant hydro-power capacity of 60 mw and above. It also provides information to Department of Agriculture for evolving suitable crop strategies.

UNI