India's reservoir levels improve nationally but eastern, northern regions face deficits

EVEN as India's overall water storage in major reservoirs has improved significantly over last year, several states are struggling with critically low levels, according to the bulletin issued on Friday.

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The country's 161 major reservoirs currently hold 57.974 billion cubic meters (BCM) of live storage, accounting for 31.78% of their total capacity, according to the weekly bulletin issued by the Central Water Commission (CWC).

This marks an increase from the 49.290 BCM recorded during the same period last year and exceeds the ten-year average of 50.038 BCM.

Nationally, the current storage is 117.6% of last year's levels and 115.9% of the normal, a sign of overall improvement. However, this aggregated progress masks stark regional imbalances.

The eastern region, covering states like Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal, is facing a sharp water shortage. The region's reservoirs are filled to just 27.87% of their capacity, well below last year's 35.97% and the normal 34.64%.

Critically low storage was reported in Odisha's Rengali and Upper Indravati reservoirs, Bihar's Badua and Chandan dams, and Mizoram's Tuirial reservoir, which is functioning at just 23.4% of its normal storage.