Pune: Officially, the southwest monsoon has arrived in Pune. However, there has not been adequate rainfall in catchment areas of the four dams supplying drinking water to Pune. Of the four dams, Temghar and Varasgaon have zero water storage, though their catchment areas received over 100 mm rainfall since June 1.
As compared to last year, this year’s water storage in the four dams is more or less same. At present, there is 2.51 thousand million cubic (TMC) ft water in Panshet while Khadakwasla reservoir has only 0.27 TMC ft water. Last year, Panshet had only 0.95 TMC ft water and Khadakwasla had only 0.27 TMC ft water.
The Indian Meteorological Department’s (IMD) long range forecast for the current southwest monsoon is 96 per cent. Since June 1, which is considered as the beginning of the monsoon, the catchment areas of four dams received a total of 403 mm rainfall. However, due to scanty rainfall, the flow of water into the dams has not been activated.
If the same situation persists for a few more days, the existing water storage will deplete fast. In all, 1,250 MLD water is supplied to Pune city daily from these dams. The city’s consumption for one month is over
1 TMC ft.
When contacted, state water resources department, Khadakwasla Irrigation Division, Executive Engineer PB Shelar said the department has planned to utilise the current water storage in such a way that it would last till July 15.
“If the PMC utilises the current water storage judiciously, water could be supplied till July end, even if there is scanty rainfall. Now, it is up to the PMC how it utilises the water storage,” Shelar said.
He said average rainfall in the catchment areas of all four dams is between 2,000 mm and 2,500 mm. Sufficient rainfall is yet to occur for the current season.
