With the monsoon playing truant this year, Maharashtra currently reels under a most severe water crisis. Such is the gravity of the situation that there is only nine per cent of water left in dams and reservoirs across the State, as against 16 per cent of water that existed around this time last year.
Already in the grip of an unprecedented drought, Marathwada region faces the maximum brunt, with water stocks having plummeted to a shocking one per cent as on June 16.
According to statistics put out by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), dams and reservoirs in Marathwada account for a minimum of one per cent stock of water as five per cent of water that was available around time last year.
The water left in dams and reservoirs of other regions is as follows, Pune — 7 per cent (18 per cent last year), Nashik— 9 per cent (16), Amravati—10 per cent (23), Nagpur —17 per cent (18) and Konkan region — 29 per cent (30).
Compared with other regions, the situation in coastal Konkan is not so alarming considering that the region has received intermittently heavy rains for more than a week now.
The Pune-based India Meteorological Department has, meanwhile, forecast that the south-west monsoon may arrive in central Maharashtra, Marathwada, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh and east Madhya Pradesh during the next two to three days.
“Conditions are favourable for further advance of Southwest Monsoon into remaining parts of central Arabian Sea, entire Konkan & Goa, some parts of Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh and east Madhya Pradesh, remaining parts of north interior Karnataka, coastal Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, entire Telangana and some more parts of Jharkhand and Bihar during next 2 to 3 days,” an IMD forecast said.
In the normal course, the south-west monsoon arrives in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra in the second week of June. The delay in the arrival of monsoon has brought the State authorities to their knees. As a result, the authorities are struggling to manage with the existing stocks of water in dams and reservoirs across the State.
Currently, the State Government is supplying water to 4,989 villages and 7,939 hamlets through tankers. For the purpose, 6,140 tankers have been pressed into service.
According to the CMO, the State Government is currently executing 40,443 works under the Maharashtra Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the State Government, providing to jobs as many as 6,90,925 labourers. “We still have 4,17,147 works on the shelf which we will take up as and when necessary. These works have the potential of creating 12.41 crore jobs,” a senior Revenue department official said.