Water woes deepen in Marathwada; 380 MCM water left in dams

Battling one of the worst droughts in the recent past, Maharashtra’s Marathwada region is only left with paltry 380 Million Cubic Meter (MCM) of usable water in over 800 dams in the region.

With a grim situation prevailing in all eight districts, the drought condition is likely to get worsen in the coming days with administration pressing in services like sending more water tankers, getting water from neighbouring districts.

According to sources in the Divisional Commissioner Office, in total 843 small and big dams of the region, only 380 MCM of usable water is left while the total capacity is 7,968 MCM. Sources said over 2,500 water tankers are in operation in the region, mostly in the worst-affected Beed, Latur and Osmanabad districts.

According to officials, out of the 75 medium dams in Marathwada, 54 have completely dried up. Of these, six are in Aurangabad, 16 in Osmanabad, three in Jalna, four in Nanded, 12 in Beed and two in Parbhani.

There are a total of 11 big water projects in Marathwada, which has water storing capacity of 5143 MCM and currently the usable water stock available is 268 MCM, while there are 75 medium projects with a capacity of 934 MCM but the stock remaining is meagre 56 MCM.

In the worst-hit Beed district, 146 irrigation projects and small Bindusara river, which serve as chief source of drinking water, have parched. Nearly 1,200 bore-wells in the district too have dried up. Currently, the water is received from Majalgaon reservoir and stock has left only for next 26 days.