Tamil Nadu and Kerala have more more water than they did last year, the Central Water Commission has said, even as tussles continue over projects such as the Mullaiperiyar Dam (pictured).
Tamil Nadu and Kerala may be at loggerheads in sharing their water but these are the states that have better water storage in their reservoirs than last year, according to the Central Water Commission.
Karnataka has registered equal storage as last year, according to the latest data released by the Central Water Commission, which monitors live storage status of 85 important reservoirs of the country on a weekly basis.
Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Tripura, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh are states having lesser storage than last year, a Press Information Bureau release said.
Though Kerala and Tamil Nadu bettered their storage of water than last year, the southern region, as a whole was less than the corresponding period of last year and also less than the average storage of last ten years during the corresponding period, it said.
Of the 30 reservoirs in this region having total storage capacity of 51.37 BCM (billion cubic meter; 1BCM = 1 lakh crore litre), there was an actual storage of 30.57 BCM, which is 60 per cent of total storage capacity, while the same during corresponding period of last year was 74 per cent, it said.
The water storage available in 85 important reservoirs of the country as on November 20, 2014 was 106.822 BCM, which is 69 per cent of total storage capacity of these reservoirs.
This storage was 84 per cent of the storage of corresponding period of last year, it added.