Water level of major reservoirs goes down by 1%: Ministry

New Delhi, April 7: The water storage available in 91 major reservoirs across the country went down by one per cent, the Water Resources Ministry said on Friday citing a weekly report.

"A total of 50.435 BCM (Billion Cubic Metres) water storage was available in 91 major reservoirs in the country for the week ending on April 6, which is 32 per cent of the total storage capacity of these reservoirs. It was recorded at 33 per cent on March 30," said a ministry statement.

It said that the water storage noted on April 6 this year was 129 per cent of the storage of corresponding period in 2016 and 105 per cent of storage of average of last ten years.

The total storage capacity of the 91 reservoirs is 157.799 BCM, about 62 per cent of the total storage capacity of 253.388 BCM which is estimated to have been created in the country, the statement said.

The statement further said that 37 of these 91 reservoirs have hydropower benefit with installed capacity of more than 60 MW.

In the northern region -- which includes Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Rajasthan -- there are six reservoirs with storage capacity of 18.01 BCM while the available live storage is 4.28 BCM -- 24 per cent of total storage capacity.

The Eastern region -- which comprises Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Tripura -- there are 15 reservoirs having storage capacity of 18.83 BCM but the live storage available in these reservoirs is 9.74 BCM, which is 52 per cent of the total capacity.

The similar situation is in the Western region -- which includes Gujarat and Maharashtra -- where 27 reservoirs have storage capacity of 27.07 BCM but the current storage in these reservoirs is 11.07 BCM -- 41 per cent of storage capacity.

The Central region, including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, has 12 reservoirs with storage capacity of 42.30 BCM but the live storage available in these reservoirs is 18.76 BCM which is 44 per cent of total storage capacity.

In the Southern region -- which includes Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu -- there are 31 reservoirs with total storage capacity of 51.59 BCM but the live storage available in these reservoirs is 6.58 BCM which is 13 per cent of total storage capacity.