Reserviors low, but rising

Reserviors low, but rising
The Financial Express, July 10, 2009, Page 1

fe Bureau, New Delhi

Rainfall is improving, but three-fourths of the country still received only scanty or deficient rains up to July 8. According to the latest report of the Central Water Commission, storage levels in 81 major reservoirs across the country are estimated to be around 11% of live capacity at full reservoir level. It had dipped to around 9% in the last week of June. Last year at around the same time, storage levels were around 25%.

Worst hit are northwestern parts of the country, chiefly the key foodgrain producing states of Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. So bad has the situation become that on Thursday, Madhya Pradesh sought to be declared a drought-affected state.

Water storage in major reservoirs in these states like Gobind Sagar (HP), Thein (Punjab), Rana Pratap Sagar (Rajasthan), Rihand (UP), Gandhi Sagar and Tawa (MP) is almost half of what it was in the same period last year. However, with the monsoon showing signs of revival, there is still hope that reservoir levels will rise in the days to come.

According to the India Meteorological Department, between June 1 and July 8 the southwest monsoon was around 36% below normal. Week on week, rains are now just 8% below normal, a big improvement over the 20% below normal for the week ended July 1.

Up to Thursday, of the 36 major meteorological sub-divisions in the country, 25 have received deficient or scanty rains, while 11 received normal showers. Almost 76% of the country’s total districts received below-normal rains.

The patchy rainfall has impacted early sowing of some key crops. Paddy acreage up to the first week of July is almost 26% less than last year, while coarse cereal sowing is down almost 53%, oilseeds down 48% and sugarcane area is less by around 3%.

“There is low sowing in many main kharif-growing areas because of low rains, but we are still hopeful that if the monsoon recovers in the next few weeks, we can salvage some of the losses,” a senior agriculture ministry official said.