The collective water storage in the city’s dams registered a slight increase on Saturday . In the past 24 hours, the stock climbed up to 1.73 TMC from Friday’s 1.47 TMC, registering a rise of 0.26 TMC.
Of the four dams, Temghar registered 83mm rainfall throughout the day , Panshet recorded 47mm rain, while Varasgaon registered 59mm rainfall till Saturday evening. Catchments of Khadakwasla recorded 10mm rainfall -the lowest among the four dams.
The depleted storage in the dams and scanty rainfall have posed a stiff challenge before the administration.Alternate day water supply was imposed on the city last Septembers following poor monsoon in 2015. A debated has been on over the past few days on if more water cuts should be imposed. The slight rise in the water-level of the dams is a welcome respite amid the ongoing water crisis.
According to the irrigation department, the dams’ catchments received continuous spell of heavy showers from Friday to Saturday . It, in turn, helped increase their water-level.
“Rainfall has been increasing in the catchment areas since the past two days. Even on Friday , the dams had recorded good rainfall. Temghar, Varasgaon and Panshet had recorded around 40mm of rainfall each. Two days of continuous rain has led to inflow of rainwater into the reservoirs. There has been rainfall across the catchments and in the hilly regions,“ an official of the irrigation department said. The four dams catering to the needs of the city have collective storage capacity of 29 TMC. Their present stock is 5.95% of the total storage capacity.
Last year, the situation was much better because the dams’ collective stock had reached up to 7.5 TMC, about 6 TMC more than this year’s storage. Catchments of the dams require over 1,500mm rainfall to take up their water-level to the maximum capacity .
Catchments of the Pavana dam, supplying water to the residents of Pimpri Chinchwad, also registered good rainfall in the past 24 hours.
The dam’s storage was at 1.03 TMC on Saturday eve ning with 65mm rainfall throughout the day in its catchment area.
The other major dams in the Bhima baisn registered substantial showers in the past 24 hours. Gunjawani recorded about 105mm rainfall, while Neera Devghar and Bhor Bhatghar recorded about 43mm and 15mm rain, respectively.
BAPAT FIRM ON NO ADDITIONAL SUPPLY CUT
Pune: District guardian minister Girish Bapat on Saturday said there was no need to impose a cut on water supply in the city in July though the stock in the dams was yet to reach the `comfortable’ level.
The guardian minister said, “Dams hold `enough’ stock to meet the city’s requirement till the end of July. By then, rainwater will increase the dams’ storage. I do not see a need to cut short the supply of water from the dams to the city till July-end.“
Bapat said the management of water storage had been done with minute details. For the past two days, catchments have received good rainfall. Hopefully, rain would continue for more days, he said.
Though Bapat claimed there was no need for water cuts, city mayor Prashant Jagtap had said on Friday that the situation was grim and there was need to take a call on additional water cuts because of low water-level in dams.
The mayor had announced that a meeting would be held after July 7 to decide on the further course of action to deal with the water crisis.
Source : TOI
