The cumulative storage in the four major reservoirs in the Cauvery basin in the State was at nearly 30% of their installed capacity as on Monday raising concerns over the fallout in case of further delay in the onset of monsoon.
The Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS), Hemavathi, Kabini, and Harangi can together store 114.57 tmcft of water as against which the available quantum as on June 12 was 33.81 tmcft. The cumulative storage on the same day last year was 64.51 tmcft, according to the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC).
The water level at the KRS was 83.04 ft on June 12 as against the full reservoir level of 124.80 ft, whereas it was 105.49 ft on the same day last year. The storage in the KRS was 25% of its actual capacity and the available quantum was 12.18 tmcft as against the gross storage capacity of 49.45 tmcft. The storage on the same day last year was 27.33 tmcft.
The Kabini reservoir normally tends to be the first dam to register an increase in inflow which helps alleviate drinking water scarcity. This is because the Kabini catchment is in the neighbouring State of Kerala where the monsoon sets in first. But the delay in the onset of monsoon has upset the regular cycle.
The water level in the Kabini reservoir was 2,249.7 ft as against the FRL of 2,284 feet on June 12 and the available quantum was 4.05 tmcft as against 8 tmcft on the same day last year.
The FRL of Hemavathi at Gorur in Hassan district is 2,922 ft as against which the water level on Monday was 2,891.56 ft and the available storage was 15.01 tmcft against the gross storage capacity of 37.1 tmcft. Harangi in Kushalnagar has 2.57 tmcft of water against its gross capacity to hold 8.5 tmcft. The inflow into all the reservoirs is measly and is not helping to augment the storage levels.
The outflow is higher than inflow due to water discharge from the canals to save the standing crops and this will deplete the reservoir levels further. The cumulative inflow into all the four dams is pegged at 0.7 tmcft against which the cumulative outflow is 0.91 tmcft.
