State reservoir levels alarming

According to the Central Water Commission (CWC), water levels in seven out of 14 reservoirs are not in a comfortable range. To make the matter worse, the storage in Krishna and Cauvery basin now stands at almost half of the last year’s storage.

Till the week ending on June 18, water level in Krishna basin was halved compared to the last year.

While it was only 11.39 per cent of its full capacity in 2009, last year it was 23.52 per cent of the capacity in the same period.

Similarly, water level in Cauvery basin and its neighbouring run-offs has depleted by almost three times.

According to the CWC data, the existing water level is only 17.44 per cent of the river’s live capacity at the full reservoir level till the week ending June 18. Last year it was a whopping 52.86 per cent in the corresponding period. Two reservoirs – Kabini and Krishnaraja Sagar – have no live storage at the moment, which means no water from these two reservoirs can be utilised.

Alamatti, Vanivilas Sagar and Ghataprabha have storages only up to 30 per cent of normal storage whereas in Hemavathy and Narayanpur, water level stands between 30 and 50 per cent of normal storage.

“Depletion of ground water level is a cause of concern. We urg the states to start programmes on recharging the ground water level,” said Union Water Resources Secretary U N Punjir who met state water resources secretaries here on Wednesday.

Water levels in the remaining seven Karnataka reservoirs – Harangi, Malaprabha, Linganamakki, Gerusoppa, Supa, Bhadra and Tungabhadra – are better.  But again, Gerusoppa, Supa and Linganamakki are not meant for agriculture.