With the arrival of the monsoon getting delayed, Maharashtra’s dams are left with only 6.61% of the total capacity of water.
Except for the Konkan division, water availability in the remaining five divisions has dropped to single digit. The Aurangabad division which covers Marathwada is the worst affected, with only 0.53% of it’s total capacity.
According to data from the Water Resources Department, the Amaravati division has 6.38% of its capacity compared to 11.67% in the corresponding period last year. In the Nagpur division, the availability is 5.68% as against 11.56% in 2018. The Nasik and the Pune divisions are left with 4.98% and 6.2% water respectively compared to 14.98% and 19.61% last year. The Konkan region however has 25.41% water in its dams against 34.13% last year. Eight out of nine major dam projects in the Aurangabad division are left with no water as of now.
Correspondingly, the number of tankers deployed across the State has increased to 6,597 — 6,382 privately owned and 215 government owned — from 6,443 in just a week between June 3 to June 10. Last year, in the same week, 1,777 tankers were deployed.
As per data from the Water Supply and Sanitation department, 5,243 villages and 11,293 hamlets are being supplied water using tankers.
In a related move, the State government has decided to finalise the detailed project report for interlinking dams. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the dams would be interconnected with pipelines and a supply network would be created across the region. The plan, under consideration for the last few years, will be implemented with the help of the newly formed Jal Shakti Ministry at the Centre. “We are working to develop a Marathwada water grid. Five detailed project reports are ready and work on the final one is on. We are going to connect all dams in Marathwada,” the CM said in Aurgangabad recently.
The number of cattle in 1,591 fodder camps across the State is 10,35,438 with the majority being in Beed, Solapur and Ahmednagar.
Questions have been raised over the extraordinary large number in Beed and Ahmednagar district and an inquiry has been ordered to check whether there are any irregularities.
