The combined live storage in the four major reservoirs in the Cauvery basin of the State was less than 10 tmcft on Thursday, according to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC).
A crisis looms large in the days ahead for the districts that are dependent on the reservoirs to meet their drinking water requirements.
The water level at the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) near Srirangapatna in Mandya is hovering at 72.46 ft against the full reservoir level (FRL) of 124.8 ft. But the live storage — the usable quantum of water in the dam — was only 3.44 tmcft against the reservoir’s live storage capacity of 45.05 tmcft. As a result, the quantum of usable water available is only 8% of its actual capacity and the south west monsoon is still a month away.
In the Hemavathi reservoir — near Goruru in Hassan district — the live storage was 3.33 tmcft on Thursday against its actual storage of 35.76 tmcft, the available water being only 9% of its capacity. Kabini reservoir in H.D. Kote has a live storage of 1.82 tmcft and Harangi near Kushalnagar in Kodagu has 1.35 tmcft, as per the data available from the KSNDMC. The cumulative live storage capacity of all the four reservoirs put together is 104.55 tmcft against which the available water is 9.94 tmcft.
Even with the intermittent rain in the last few days, the inflow into the KRS has been negligible. The rate of inflow into the KRS on Thursday was pegged at the rate of 115 cusecs while it was 278 cusecs in Kabini. The rate of inflow at Harangi was 92 cusecs and it was 22 cusecs at Hemavathi.
Sources at Cauvery Neeravari Nigam Ltd. (CNNL) and the Irrigation Department say the present storage in the Cauvery basin reservoirs is sufficient to discharge water at the rate of 1,200 cusecs per day to meet the drinking water requirements of Bengaluru, Mysuru, and other Cauvery-dependent areas, for the next 15 days.
