10 pc more rain for June in State

The water levels in most of the reservoirs in the State have reached the brim, almost. As per the statistics compiled by the Water Resources Department, barring the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS), Malaprabha and Ghataprabha, the other seven major reservoirs are close to the maximum level.

In May, the State was staring at a water crisis with the Cauvery basin being almost empty and the Krishna reservoirs barely coping to provide drinking water to North Karnataka.

According to officials, the present reservoir levels are generally seen towards the end of August, when the monsoon retreats. With no less than 10 per cent increase in the rainfall for the month of June, the water storage has already reached comfortable levels. Rains may continue to batter the State over the next month, providing a surplus of water.

Officials said that at the present rate, the reservoirs in the State are likely to overflow.
However, they believe that it is too early to say that the State has overcome the water crisis. As per the present rainfall statistics, the State is still short by 148 mm of rainfall for the monsoon period of June to September. The current rainfall received by the State is placed at 684.3 mm as compared to the average rainfall of 832.3 mm for the three months of monsoon.

At the Kabini reservoir, as of July 2, the water level is only five feet below the maximum. The excess water from the dam flows towards the KRS, where the water level is still far from reaching the maximum level. The water level in KRS was recorded at 91.5 feet on Tuesday (maximum 124.8 feet). The Harangi reservoir is only two feet away from overflowing. The water level on Tuesday was 2,857 feet (maximum 2,859 feet).

In the Krishna basin, the situation appears to be ‘comfortable’ with all the six reservoirs in the region reaching the 80 per cent mark. However, there seems to be a deficit in water storage at the Malaprabha and Ghataprabha dams.

Four houses were damaged as heavy rains lashed Mangalore taluk from Monday to Tuesday morning. Three houses suffered damage in Amblamogaru village near the city, and one house was damaged in Konaje village.

Rains give B’lore a miss

Despite heavy showers across the State, Bangalore has been experiencing little or no rainfall over the past month.

While it was a foregone conclusion that the City will receive negligible rainfall during the South West monsoon, in the past 48 hours the situation was worse. Bangalore received (-) 99 per cent rainfall compared to normal rainfall.