Water level at Narmada dam rising slowly but constantly; rise of 29 cm in four days

Gandhinagar:

The water level of Sardar Sarovar Narmada reservoir in Kevadia of Narmada district was increasing slowly but constantly for last 4 days and it has gone up by 29 cm since March 18 and in last 24 hours alone it has seen a rise of 10 cm.

The rise in the water level of the largest artificial water body in Gujarat, known as the life-center of water-supply in the state, was seeing this rise after a long time ie since last monsoon.

According to the information received from the office of the Director (Canals) Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL) C V Nadpara, the water level was at 105.71 meter at 8 am this morning was slowly rising owing to increased inflow from Madhya Pradesh.

The inflow rate today was 7401 cubic feet per second (cusec) while the outflow was only 3215 cusec.

The water level had seen first rise after monsoon on March 18. It has since a rise of 29 cm since then (from 105.42 to 105.71 m).

Notably, the supply of water from Sardar Sarovar Narmada dam for irrigation of Rabi crops was as per pre- announced schedule was completely stopped on March 16. It had resulted in lessening of over 5000 cusec of outflow rate from the largest water reservoir in Gujarat amid concerns over availability of enough water this summer. But the water level was still receding.

After the release of fresh water from MP, the water level was increasing.

A senior official of the SSNNL had earlier said that the rise was a temporary phenomenon though there was no dearth of water in the reservoir for supply for drinking purposes in Gujarat to over 10000 villages and 150 towns dependent on Narmada water. Notably, before the stopping of irrigation related flow the discharge flow rate on an average was around 9000 cusec and had that been the case today also, the water level would not have been increasing. In any case, the likelihood of the water level touching the 110.64 meter mark again was quite faint. Above this water level only the electricity generation through the two hydel units of SSNNL starts. The units were shut since February 20 this year after the sliding of the water level below 110.64 meter.

DeshGujarat