With several of the big dams in Rajasthan filling up to their full storage capacity following excess rain this monsoon, the Water Resources Department has devised an action plan to supply more drinking water to the towns of Jaipur, Ajmer and Tonk districts. Two gates of Bisalpur dam in Tonk were opened after its water level neared full capacity of 38.7 thousand million cubic feet.
In the 22 big dams in the State, 7,085 million cubic metres of water has arrived against their total storage capacity of 8,104 million cubic metres. The dams which became full to the brim by Wednesday included Kota Barrage, Mahi Bajaj Sagar, Bisalpur, Morel, Som Kamla Amba, Jawahar Sagar and Jakham.
Water Resources Department’s Chief Engineer K.D. Sandu said the arrival of water had touched an average of 77.16% of the total storage capacity of all the dams in the State. The flow of water was higher in the Kota and Udaipur divisions during the rain which were 42% higher than the average rainfall, while 285 of the total of 810 big and small dams in the State were full to their capacity.
Lake to get water
The Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), dealing with the drinking water supply, has decided to increase the volume of supply from September 1 and is also considering a proposal to supply water from Bisalpur dam to fill up ‘maotha’ — a historic lake — at the base of Amber Fort near Jaipur.
PHED Principal Secretary Sandeep Verma said the water supply mechanism would stabilise in Jaipur and elsewhere during the next couple of months, with the volume being increased from 330 million litres per day to 360 million litres per day and the duration of supply from 45 minutes to 60 minutes per day.
