12 districts in Maharashtra stare at drought this year

Twelve districts of Maharashtra — mainly in Marathwada and north Maharashtra — have received deficient rainfall this season and may once again face drought.

Twelve districts of Maharashtra — mainly in Marathwada and north Maharashtra — have received deficient rainfall this season and may once again face drought.

The region was ravaged by drought in 2016 too.

The 12 districts are Aurangabad, Beed, Hingoli, Jalna, Nanded, Latur, Osmanabad, Parbhani, Dhule, Nandurbar, Ahmednagar and Jalgaon. Officials said some of these areas may start facing a shortage of drinking water within days.

The state’s relief and rehabilitation department has begun the process to declare the areas as drought-hit. The issue was discussed in the state cabinet meeting on Wednesday, when state revenue minister Chandrakant Patil said drought will need to be declared in the 12 districts. “We have already started the process of analysing the seriousness of the situation by conducting panchnamas. Drought will be declared by October 15,” Patil told HT. He added that a detailed report will be sent to the Centre to get financial assistance. Between June and the end of September, Maharashtra got about 77% of its average rainfall, which means it is facing a 23% deficit.

However, there are 26 tehsils that received less than 50% of the average rainfall. Of them, seven are from Marathawada, and four tehsils are from north Maharashtra.

Medha Gadgil, the additional chief secretary, relief and rehabilitation department, said 170 tehsils had received less than 75% rainfall till September-end, and are prone to drought this year.

“The drought will be declared in districts following a report from National Centre for Crop Forecasting (NCCF), a forecast agency that works under the Union agriculture ministry and after panchnamas are conducted by tehsildars in the affected areas,” Gadgil said.

“The seasonal rainfall in Mumbai has been below the average as the usual heavy rainfall activity was missing after mid-July. Dry spells and below average rainfall in Marathwada, Central Maharashtra and some parts of Vidarbha have affected agriculture,” said Akshay Deoras, independent meteorological advisor to Maharashtra state.

“Barring Konkan, Mumbai and some parts of Pune division, water storage in rest of the state is worrisome. It’s clear that after a gap of three years, a high magnitude drought has returned to Maharashtra.”

For now, the state has deployed 329 tankers to supply drinking water to districts across Maharashtra. Of them, 182 tankers have been deployed for the Marathwada region alone; 118 tankers are supplying water to north Maharashtra. The maximum number of tankers — 158 — have been deployed to Aurangabad, according to statistics from the state water supply and sanitation department.

In terms of water stock, Marathwada has only 28.44% water in its dams. The Jayakwadi dam, the lifeline of Marathawada region, situated at Paithan, has just 42.51% water stock.

Last year this time, it had more than 100% water stock.

“We have already authorised collectors and commissioners to take decisions about deploying water tankers and ensuring other mitigation measures are taken to deal with the water scarcity,” said a senior official from the water supply and sanitation department