In cheerful news, at the height of summer, the Jal Shakti Ministry’s first national water body count has found 97,062 water bodies in Maharashtra, as per the official report released on Wednesday.
The census, conducted in 2018-2019, counted more than 2.24 million water reservoirs across India, of which 2.35 million (97.1%) were in rural areas and 69,485 (2.9%) in urban centres.
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They comprise 59.5% (14,42,993) ponds, tanks 15.7% (381,805), other water bodies 12.1% (292,280), conservation schemes/seepage lakes/dams 9.3% (226,217), lakes 0.9%(22,361), and other types of water storage systems 2.5% (58,884).
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis welcomed the Jal Shakti Ministry’s survey report as a success of various schemes implemented here that augur well for the peoples’ water needs in the state.
Of the state’s total 97,062 reservoirs, 99.3% (96,343) are in rural areas, the remaining 0.7% (719) fall in urban areas, and most are water conservation schemes, while 99.7% (96,767) are of public ownership type, and the rest, 0.3% (295), are privately owned.
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Maharashtra’s 98.9% (96,033) reservoirs are “currently in use”, while the remaining 1.1% (1,029) reservoirs are “currently not in use”, and the water from the first category reservoirs is used for groundwater recharge.
Aurangabad, Jalna and Nashik figure among the top five districts in India that utilise the reservoirs’ water in various ways. Maharashtra has 574 natural and 96,488 artificial reservoirs, the latter costing between Rs 5-10 lakh.
Out of the natural water bodies, 98.4% (565) come from rural areas, and the remaining 1.6% (9) are in urban areas, and among the 96,488 artificial reservoirs, 99.3% (95,778) are from rural areas, while the remaining 0.7% (710) are from urban areas.
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The basic construction cost of most artificial reservoirs is between Rs 5 to 10 lakh.
In Maharashtra, 60.7% (58,887) are covered under District/State Irrigation Schemes, 90.8% (53,449) are of the type of water conservation schemes/seepage ponds/dams, while the remaining 9.2% (5,438) comprise tanks, ponds, reservoirs etc.
Of the “in use” reservoirs, 82.5% (79,238) serve one city/town, 17.1% (16,406) quench the water needs of 2-5 cities/towns, and the remaining 0.4% (389) benefit more than five cities/towns.
Considering the storage capacity, 94.8% (92,026) of reservoirs in Maharashtra have a storage capacity of up to 100 cubic meters, while 4% (3,885) have a 100-1,000 cubic meters capacity.
The survey revealed that only 0.26% (251) of water bodies are encroached in the state — the lowest in India.
NOTE – This article was originally published in weather and can be viewed here
Tags: #cities, #climate, #getgreengetgrowing, #gngagritech, #greenstories, #groundwater, #maharashtra, #summer, #towns, #water, #waterconservation, #watercrisis
