India Water Reservoir Storage Down 18% from Year Ago, Gap Widens from Week Earlier

Water storage in India’s major reservoirs rose over the past week, but the shortfall from a year earlier widened to 18.1% as of August 27 from 17.3% a week earlier, indicating that current inflows continue to lag last year’s levels.

Total storage stood at 125.30 billion cubic metres, or 67.8% of live capacity, compared with 117.77 billion cubic metres, or 64.2%, on August 20.

Storage was also 3.7% below the 10-year average, compared with a 3.0% deficit a week earlier.

The year-on-year gap widened sharply in the northern and southern regions. Northern reservoir storage was 11.93 billion cubic metres, down 33.7% from a year ago, compared with a 31.9% deficit on August 20.

Southern storage stood at 32.04 billion cubic metres, down 33.0% from a year earlier, against a 31.0% shortfall a week earlier.

The eastern region swung to a 7.4% year-on-year deficit from a 0.4% surplus on Aug 20. Storage there rose to 13.52 billion cubic metres from 12.70 billion cubic metres during the week.

Western reservoir storage was down 7.3% from a year ago, widening from a 0.8% deficit a week earlier, even as the region remained 13.0% above its 10-year average.

The central region showed an improvement, with its year-on-year deficit narrowing to 6.2% from 13.7%. Storage rose to 36.81 billion cubic metres from 31.95 billion cubic metres.

Western and central reservoirs were at 80.4% and 75.8% of live capacity, respectively, while northern, eastern and southern reservoirs were at 60.2%, 61.9% and 57.3%.