Marathwada Faces Severe Water Shortage As Five Dams Hit 0% Capacity

There is no water left in five out of 11 major reservoirs in Maharashtra's Marathwada region, while the Jayakwadi dam, the biggest of them, currently holds only 4% of its total storage capacity, officials said on Friday. The Marathwada region comprises Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Jalna, Beed, Parbhani, Hingoli, Dharashiv, Latur and Nanded districts.

Eleven major projects in this region are facing no availability of water due to scanty rainfall last year. The water stock in four of these reservoirs has gone down to 0%. The Jayakwadi dam, the biggest reservoir in the Marathwada region, is currently holding only three thousand million cubic feet water, which is only 4% of its total storage capacity, the divisional commissioner office said in its report.

The five reservoirs where the water level has dipped to 0% are Siddheshwar (Hingoli), Majalgaon and Manjara (both Beed), Nimna Terna and Sina Kolegaon (both Dharashiv).

Other water level in seven other projects is as follows: Jayakwadi (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) 4.04%, Nimn Dudhna (Parbhani) 6.23%, Vishnupuri (Nanded) 15.58%, Manar (Nanded) 22.63%, Yeldari (Parbhani) 26.66% and Penganga (Nanded) 29.23%, the report said.

The current aggregate water stock in these projects is 11.28% as on Friday, which was 38.64% on the same day last year, it said.

In the Jayakwadi dam the water stock on the same day last year was 34.94%, it said.

Despite the water stock level of Manjara dam hitting rock bottom, the civic authorities said no water cut will be implemented in the city.

"At present, we are supplying water every four days in Latur. Though we are going into dead storage, we have no issue for the next 3-4 months. So there will be no water cut in Latur city," a senior municipal official said.

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar city receives water once every eight days depending on the water situation of the Jayakwadi dam, a civic official said, adding that the work of laying a new parallel supply line is underway and is expected to be completed by the end of this year.