Mysuru: The pre- monsoon showers from January to May, which contribute 12 per cent of the state's annual rainfall, have intensified of late, but they are overall deficit by 20 per cent this year, according to the weathermen.
But the storage of water in the dams of the Cauvery catchment area is adequate to meet the drinking water needs of Bengaluru, Mysuru, and 625 villages and 43 towns until the end of May, say dam authorities.
While the Indian Meteorological Department, has predicted the state will receive 96 per cent of its normal rainfall during the South West Monsoon starting June, "Climate," a private agency warns the probability of the state receiving normal rainfall is only 49 per cent and has classified all its 30 districts in the high risk zone.
Director of the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, Dr G S Srinivasreddy too believes the state will receive 23 per cent deficit rainfall in June and July, which might only lead to saturation of the ground and affect dam storage.
" The state has received 2 mm pre-monsoon showers in January and February each and 8mm in March. This month it has received 36mm rain and 86mm is predicted for May. Overall so far from January, it has received 26mm of rainfall on an average against the normal rainfall of 32 mm this time of the year, which points to a 20 per cent deficit," Dr Srinivasareddy explained.
With 3 tmc of Cauvery water required every month to meet the drinking water needs of the people the river serves, the Kabini reservoir has reserved its water for drinking and not released any water for the summer crops.
The KRS dam in Mandya too has released water only for the standing crops. Both dams have however, released drinking water to Bengaluru since February. Currently, the KRS dam has a storage of 12.56 tmc of water , Kabini, 4.20 tmc, Harangi, 1.08 tmc and Hemavathi , 3.87 tmc.
