Massive deficit in 4 dams as showers elude catchments in Pune

Pune: Scanty rainfall in July has added a mere 4.6 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) of water to the four reservoirs that supply water to Pune city, causing a deficit of 13 TMC.

On Friday, the collective stock in Khadakwasla, Panshet, Varasgaon and Temghar stood at 9.8 TMC. This time last year, all four reservoirs together had 23 TMC.

The water level in none of the four dams has crossed the halfway mark — Panshet was 40% full, Varasgaon and Khadakwasla had 32% stock each, while Temghar’s storage stood at 20%.

Officials from the state water resources department, while adding that there were two more months of monsoon left, said they would review the stock and prepare a water management plan around August 15.

The department officials said the catchments areas of the four reservoirs did not receive continuous spells of rainfall in July. Only a few days witnessed heavy rainfall. “Generally, the rainfall activity becomes rigorous in July, but it was subdued this year. In fact, all four dams had 5.2 TMC of water stock at the start of July — 3 TMC more than last year’s stock,” an official said.

The total rainfall for the season so far was around 1,000mm — Temghar received about 400mm of rainfall in July, while Panshet and Varasgaon reported about 300mm each. Last year, rainfall activity in the catchments continued till October, with heavy rain in August and September.

Further, the scanty rainfall has forced the water resources department to postpone the monsoon release of water for the kharif crop sowing season. In a normal year, the water release starts around July 10 and is on for a month, depending on stock and rainfall activity.

In all, the subdued monsoon during most of July also resulted in less-than-normal rains in seven districts in Maharashtra — Pune, Satara, Nashik, Nandurbar, Gondia, Gadchiroli and Bhandara.

Between June 1 and July 22 last year, Pune city (Shivajinagar) had received a staggering 403.8mm of rainfall — an excess of 133.6mm. This year, however, the area received just 263.2mm, about 2.8mm less than normal. “Rainfall for Pune city in general has been on the lower side for most of the month of July,” officials said.