Over 1 meter water depletion in 1,318 Maharashtra observation wells

Representational Picture

Over 1,300 observation wells in drought-hit Maharashtra have reported water depletion by more than one meter, Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Babanrao Lonikar Thursday told the Legislative Council. The depletion of more than one meter water level is important because the reduction is compared with the average level of the same wells for the last five years, he said.

As many as 1,318 observation wells have reported water depletion by more than one meter, Lonikar said it in a written reply to a question by Sharad Ranpise (Congress). There are 681 observation wells where water level depletion is between 1-2 meters, the minister said.

Also Read: With SC order, BMC can finally demolish hutments at Tansa

The depletion level also indicated that 5,640 villages spread across 175 tehsils would face water scarcity, he said. "The state government has initiated repair works of water supply schemes. As a part of the scarcity action plan of the government, a total of 80,131 temporary and major repair works have been undertaken by my department," Lonikar said.

"We have also decided to use 5 percent of the amount from scarcity funds to repay the dues of water supply schemes. It has helped the state to reactivate drinking water schemes in rural areas," he said.

Also Read: Mumbai: Three lakes filled to 70 percent capacity, Tansa starts overflowing

On the other hand, despite the Indian Meteorological Department's (IMD)declaration of monsoon arriving in the city on June 25, there were hardly few spells of rainfall in the city on June 26, 2019. The catchment areas in Mumbai didn't receive much rainfall either leading to the city's water stock to drop down to 5 percent from 6.1 percent which was recorded on Tuesday.

Of the seven reservoirs, data from the Hydraulic Engineering department indicates that 26 mm of rainfall was recorded at Tansa lake. Between 7 am on June 25 and 7 am on June 26, while no rainfall was recorded in Colaba, 13.6 mm of rainfall was recorded at Santacruz.

As of June 26, 2019, the seven lakes in Mumbai have 73784 million litres of water left. On the same day last year, the lakes had 2.53 lakh million litres of water and in 2017, the lakes had 3.48 lakh million litres of water in its reservoirs. The BMC had imposed a 10 percent water cut and 15 percent in supply timings since November 2018. Read the full story here.

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