Discharge from Gangapur, Darna, Nandur Madhyameshwar
NASHIK :
Even though the Covid-19 crisis has engulfed the district, there is some for the district as far as water stock in the district dams is concerned as it has reported nearly five times more useful storage as compared to the corresponding period last year.
The district had faced successive years of water shortage and drought over the past few years. However, most parts of the district had received good rainfall last year.
According to a Nashik Irrigation Division, Water and Resources report of Saturday, “at the beginning of June this year, 24 major, medium and small projects in the district have adequate water reserve of 30%.”
On this day last year, the collective stock available across these dams was just 5 per cent. This year, there is abundant water reserve and even if the arrival of normal monsoon is delayed, the crisis of ‘water cut’ will not affect the district.
Due to last year’s heavy and prolonged rainfall, the reservoirs in the district has abundant water stock this year. The Gangapur dam has 47 per cent or 2633 mcft of water.
Last year, it was 1,025 mcft, which was only 18 per cent. At present, discharge from Gangapur, Darna and Nandur Madhyameshwar dams has been started.
At present, in 24 projects in the district 30 percent or 19821 mcft of water stock is available. Therefore, along with the reserved drinking water storage, water is also being supplied to the agriculture and other sectors.
For this, discharge from five dams is currently underway. Discharge of water at the rate of 400 cusecs from Gangapur, Kashyapi and Gautami Godavari dams is currently underway. As a result, rise in water level of Godavari river was witnessed on Friday.
Last year, water stock in the district dams had touched the bottom due to drought and compared to present water stock, 13 out of 24 medium and small capacity dams were completely dried, while major dams had left with 10 to 15 percent water storage.
As a result, water scarcity was rampant in the entire district. The Gangapur Dam Complex, which supplies water to Nashik city, had 13% water stock availability during the period.
Discharge of water (in cusecs)
Gangapur dam – 400
Kashyapi – 280
Gautami Godavari – 80
Karanjvan – 1200
Darna – 1100
