Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
Predicting very heavy rainfall, the India Meteorological Department (IMD), has issued a ‘Yellow Alert’ in five districts of Marathwada. These districts are Parbhani, Hingoli, Nanded, Latur and Osmanabad (Dharashiv). Meanwhile, the IMD hinted that the remaining districts of the region will witness a spell of light showers.
It may be noted that there is heavy rainfall in all over the state except Marathwada. The Nasik district, which is upstream of the Jayakwadi Dam has also not received heavy rainfall or else the dam receives a large quantity of water deposition from the upstream.
The average annual rainfall recorded in Marathwada every year is 679.5 mm. However, the region has received only 210 mm rainfall, so far. It was expected that 254 mm of rainfall would receive in June and July, but the area received only 30.9 per cent of the annual average rainfall. There are 11 big dams which were also expecting heavy rainfall.
The region, during the last year, received 413 mm of rainfall to date. Hence there was adequate quantity of water in all the big, medium and small water reservoirs. Presently, there is 34.99 per cent of usable water storage in the 11 water reservoirs. It has received 205 million cubic metres (MCM) of water during this monsoon. Meanwhile, the district administration has issued an order refraining the administration concerned from releasing water from Jayakwadi Dam till October 31.