The Krishnarajasagar dam in Srirangapatna taluk of Mandya district has 17.08 tmcft of water as against its capacity of 49.45 tmcft.
Photo by Special Arrangement
The water levels in the reservoirs in the Cauvery basin have reduced alarmingly.
The storage of water in the Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) reservoir stood at just 35%, Kabini dam 66%, Harangi and Hemavathi dams 30% each, of their respective gross capacities, as on Sunday.
Also, the storage in the KRS dam is 51% less and Hemavathi 34% less, compared to their storage on the corresponding day last year.
On Sunday, the water level in the KRS dam was 91.84 feet as against its maximum capacity of 124.80 feet; Kabini dam had water up to 2,272.44 (against full reservoir level of 2,284 feet); Hemavathi dam had 2,891.39 feet of water (against its capacity 2,922 feet) and the water level at Harangi reservoir was 2,831.61 feet as against its capacity of 2,859 feet.
In terms of storage capacity, the KRS dam has 17.08 tmcft of water as against its capacity 49.45 of tmcft. The storage capacity was 34.95 tmcft on the corresponding day last year.
Hemavathi has 14.85 tmcft as against its capacity 37.10 tmcft and last year it had 22.34 tmcft.
Kabini has 12.95 tmcft as against its capacity 19.52 tmcft and last year on the same day it had 12.41 tmcft .
Harangi had 3.42 tmcft as against its capacity 8.50 tmcft and last year it had 3.29 tmcft .
As much as 3.35 tmcft of water is required per month to meet the drinking water needs of Bengaluru (2 tmcft), Mysuru (0.75 tmcft), Mandya, Chamarajanagar and Ramanagara (0.60 tmcft) till the end of water year (June 2023-May 2024).
Before the state started releasing water to Tamil Nadu, on August 5, 2023, the maximum water level of the KRS dam was 113.44 feet, Kabini was 2,282.73 feet, Hemavathi 2,915.05 feet and Harangi dam was 2,858.65 feet.
Deficit rainfall
The state received 38% deficit north-east Monsoon showers from October to December (including 31% deficit rainfall in south interior Karnataka, 1% excess in Mysuru and 15% deficit in the Malnad area, 10% deficit rainfall in Kodagu, in the Cauvery basin). Karnataka received 25% deficit south-west monsoon rain from June to September.