Summer blues: Water storage in country's dams at just 38%

New Delhi: Ahead of the summer season, the live storage capacity in India's 150 primary reservoirs stands at just 38 per cent of their total capacity, which is less than the last decade's average for the same period, according to data.

Cities like Bengaluru are already grappling with a shortfall of around 500 million litres of water per day (MLD), against a demand of 2,600 MLD.

Karnataka, among other states, registered lower storage levels compared to the same period last year, according to the weekly bulletin by the Central Water Commission.

Bengaluru hosts 14,000 borewells with 6,900 of them having dried up. Water bodies have either been encroached upon or have dried up.

The city requires 2,600 MLD of water, out of which 1,470 MLD is sourced from the Cauvery and 650 MLD from borewells, CM Siddaramaiah had said.

Several other states, including Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh also reported lower storage levels. (PTI)