Summary:
Aurangabad: Four major irrigations projects from Marathwada including Majalgaon in Beed district and Sina Kolegaon in Osmanabad continue to be in dead storage one and half months into the rainy season.The collective live storage in 957 different irrigation projects has remained stagnant at 19% as compared to 15% last year. Good rains are needed to revive water levels, official data from the State Water Resources Department shows.Besides Majalgaon and Sina Kolegaon project, Siddeshwar and Yeldari major irrigation projects from Hingoli district have been also showing zero live storage. Manjra (6%) from Beed district and Lower Manar (9.8%) from Nanded are among other major projects left with single-digit storage levels.Jayakwadi major irrigation project, considered the lifeline to Aurangabad and parts of Marathwada, and serving drinking water needs, has been showing 28% live storage as compared to 17% last year.Lower Terna from Osmanabad district is filled with 42% live storage, whereas Lower Dudhna from Parbhani district is left with 16% live storage.As far as the 81 medium irrigation projects are concerned, they together have over 21% live storage, whereas 832 minor projects were showing nearly 19% live stock. These categories of storages were showing 17% and 13% live storage, respectively, last year official data show.A senior WRD official said no major inflows have been reported in major dams and other reservoirs, given the weak run of the monsoon so far. Only Vishnupuri Dam from Nanded district has reported considerable inflow of 49.79 MCUM (million cubic metres) since June 1..