Gujarat is staring at water scarcity in coming days as the state has received only 73.87 percent of average rainfall this monsoon.
"The state has received 73.87 percent rainfall as the monsoon is on the verge of receding," a government release said.
The Kutch region has received a mere 26.51 percent of average rainfall so far, while North Gujarat has received 42.93 percent, central Gujarat 66.83 percent, Saurashtra 72.20 percent, and South Gujarat the highest 94.79 percent.
Kutch and North Gujarat are likely to face severe water scarcity this year, officials said.
However, Sardar Sarovar Dam is filled up to 125.82 meters, and it can provide drinking water for the entire state till the next summer, the government said.
It will also be able to provide water from Narmada Dam for farming during Kharif (monsoon) and Rabi (winter) seasons, the government said.
"We have decided to supply water for irrigation too," Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel told reporters in Gandhinagar.
He was speaking about decisions taken at a meeting on the water situation, chaired by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani.
"We also plan to fill the dams in Saurashtra region and provide water for irrigation from Narmada Dam under the SAUNI scheme," he said.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

He urged people, especially the philanthropists, land-owners, industrialists and others, to come forward and contribute generously to the Supreme Court’s fund for the construction of the two dams.
He asked them to play a constructive role in making the country self-sufficient in the areas of energy, food and water.
Terming construction of big dams extremely vital, he voiced fear “Pakistan will face a drought-like situation if big dams like Diamer-Bhasha and Mohmand are not constructed by 2030.” Consequently, mass exodus from drought-stricken areas will start and migration from villages to urban areas will take place.
Mulk said construction of new dams would lead to the immense uplift of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa where thousands of hectares of land were standing uncultivated due to water scarcity.
“No development is possible with fast-depleting energy resources,” he said.
“Agriculture and industrial sectors are in dire need of water and energy to keep their wheels running.” “Approximately, 40,000 medium and large-sized dams had been constructed around the world in the 20th century,” he said.
“Of these, the US built 7,500, China 22,000 and India 4,600 dams while Pakistan constructed a limited number of reservoirs only.” He lamented that not a single dam was constructed after Tarbela in the country.
“The current water crisis would not have emerged had Diamer-Bhasha, Mohmand and Kalabagh dams been constructed timely,” he said.
All those who opposed the construction of Kalabagh dam were in fact misguided about the mega project besides lack of knowledge about the looming water crisis in the country, he said.
“But to our utter dismay, the country is generating only around 6,000 megawatts from hydel resources.”

In Sanni-Otin community in Odo-Otin Local government area of the state, some 32 kilometres from Oke Ila, the story was no different.
The water scarcity in the state was not limited to Ifedayo and Odo-Otin local government areas creating an active emergency.
A Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Specialist with the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), Mr Moustapha Niang said 57 million Nigerians do not have access to safe water supply and that more than half of these numbers live in rural areas.
“Water scarcity was making life difficult in this community.
Mrs Asimotu Jolayemi, a petty trader, also lives in the community.
Prior to that, the state government provided water through the state water corporation.
But this was not enough to go around the state.
The General Manager of the Osun Rural Water and Environmental Sanitation Agency (RUWESA), Mr Adiatu Olaposi said 480 hand pumps and solar boreholes have been provided in the communities in Odo-Otin, Ifedayo and Ayedaade Local Government Areas and 129 others are ongoing and that the projects would provide portable water for about 60,000 people in the state.
Found at the foot of a borehole pumping water into her container, Mrs Idowu said she and her family had been considering leaving the community before the intervention.
“Unlike before, I’m not wasting time going to the stream to fetch water again.

Development can be sustainable, it can be green.
Holmgren, a former Swedish ambassador with extensive experience working in South Asia, among other regions, spoke to IPS about how South Asia can best address the serious gender imbalances in water access and the issue of sustainable water technology support from developed economies to developing countries.
For the region specifically, a fundamental aspect is how its countries govern their water accessibility.
It boils down to how institutions, not just governments but communities, industries at large govern water – how water systems are organised and allocated.
IPS: What is SIWI’s stand on the issue of sustainable water technology support from developed economies to developing countries?
It is true that new technology is developing fast, but a mix of this with traditional technology and local knowledge works well.
IPS: How can South Asia best address the serious gender imbalances in water access, bring more women into water governance in its patriarchal societies?
TH: It is important that those in power need encourage gender balance not in decision-making alone but in educational institutions.
Done on a large scale, it can bring tremendous change to people, livelihoods and societies at large.
Especially in South Asia’s growing urban sprawls, we must capture the flooding rainwater, store it in green water infrastructure for reuse; because grey cannot do it alone.

HYDERABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 9th Sep, 2018 ) :The Sindh Chamber of Agriculture (SCA), a farmers’ lobbying group, has urged the Sindh government to declare drought in whole province excluding Karachi.
The demand was raised after a meeting of SCA at its secretariat here Sunday in view of the irrigation water shortage in the province which persisted for 6 months in the current year.
The meeting was presided by SCA’s President Qabool Muhammad Khatian while the farmers’ representatives from Karachi, Sukkur, Sanghar and Ghotki attended through the video link.The farmers said around 80 percent of some 12.7 million acres of land under command area of the Guddu, Sukkur and Kotri barrages in Sindh had been affected by the water shortage.
"The crops on 9 million acres dried owing to the water scarcity," said Khatian.The meeting demanded that all the irrigation and agricultural taxes should be waived for the farmers and that the State Bank should waive the agricultural loan.
The farmers also expressed concern over shortage of water in the irrigation canals and requested the Sindh government to stop releasing 20,000 cusecs water in the downstream of Kotri barrage.
They asked the government to ensure that the sugar mills started sugarcane crushing from first week of November.
250 per maund support price for the sugarcane crop against Rs.
172 per maund which was given last year.
"The meeting of Sugarcane Development Board should be called at the earliest to fix the price," the SCA demanded.
The SCA’s meeting decried the ever increasing prices of electricity, gas and fertilizer and asked the federal government to honour its promises for the farmers and agricultural growth.

You Wu You Wu, an MIT graduate, has developed a robot to find leaks in water pipes.
The robot finds leaks by detecting suction forces, unlike other methods that rely on listening for leaks.
He founded the company WatchTower Robotics with his college friend earlier this year.
When You Wu was growing up in China, officials would shut off water to his community for half a day each week in the name of conservation.
The experience contributed to Wu’s interest in water scarcity, which he chose to study more in-depth after moving to the United States 10 years ago.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, now 28, has developed a robot to find leaks in water pipes.
As the robot moves with the water through a pipe, its "hands" touch the pipe and feel the suction forces caused by leaks, Wu told Business Insider.
It took Wu five years to create a working prototype.
The current version, Lighthouse, was released in January, shortly after Wu was named to Forbes’ 2018 "30 Under 30" list for manufacturing and industry.
The American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2017 "Infrastructure Report Card" estimates that there are 240,000 water-main breaks in the United States each year, equivalent to wasting more than 2 trillion gallons of treated drinking water annually.

Srinagar Residents of Dangiwachi and its adjoining areas in Rafiabad tehsil of Baramulla on Wednesday held a protest demonstration against the water scarcity in the area.
Scores of the protesters including men women, and children raising slogans against the PHE Department sought immediate attention of PHE, Irrigation in this regard.
They warned to intensify agitation in case the problem was not solved.
The protestors also blocked Baramulla- Rafiabad road and alleged the authorities of turning a blind eye towards the grave issue.
The residents lamented that the lack of potable water causes poor hygiene besides many other problems.
They appealed the concerned authorities to look into the matter.
“We will hit the streets again if authorities fail to restore drinking water supply to the area at the earliest,” said a protestor.
Later, a police party reached to the spot and took the cognizance of the protest.
However, after the assurances from police residents called off the protest.

Sources added that the officials draw 270 MLD of water from both lakes, Chembarambakkam and Red Hills.
Chennai: With the city staring at water scarcity as all water bodies around are slowing drying up, officials of the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB) are mulling to draw water from Porur lake, like last year.
However, the only solace as officials say is that the need to tap water from Porur lake was not very acute at this juncture, as the existing storage in both the Chembarambakkam and Red Hills, besides other sources is enough to meet requirements for this month.
Sources added that the officials draw 270 MLD of water from both lakes, Chembarambakkam and Red Hills.
If they keep drawing the available surface water at this pace, the two lakes will dry up soon, leading to acute water scarcity in the city.
“We are cautious about drinking water supply and are closely monitoring the available storage.
Even as we are supplying 650 MLD of water to the city against the 830 MLD as it used to be, we may draw water from Porur lake, should the need arise,” said an official, on conditions of anonymity.
However, the official hoped that the north-east monsoon would lend a helping hand with copious rains.
“Officials should not always rely on rains, but take precautionary steps to supply drinking water regularly,” said A Raj, a resident of Chintadripet.
However, there is no hurry.”

Sabarimala: Kunnar dam which was the major source of drinking water in Sabarimala temple was filled by the floods and is dumped with rocks and soil.
Since rocks and soil got deposited in the dam and its catchment areas, its storage capacity was reduced and the water kept overflowing.
About 25 lakh litres of water per day has been brought to the temple premises from here.
Kunnar dam is located 7 km away from Sabarimala and has a storage capacity of 50 lakh litres.
The water was carried to the temple without using electric power.
The dam was found to have levelled when the Devaswom engineers inspected it on Sunday.
Labourers will be assigned soon to remove the soil dumped in the dam.
If the dam is not repaired on a war footing, the people have to face scarcity of fresh water in the temple during the pilgrimage season.
Water pumping from Pamba to the temple has been stopped since August 14 due to motor damage and power failures.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Monday has approved a $100 million loan to address the water scarcity issue in Balochistan.
With the help of this loan the Balochistan Water Resources Development Sector Project will focus on improving irrigation infrastructure and water resource management in the Zhob and Mula river basins, the ADB statement said.
Being an agriculture state, the backbone of the economy depends on the agriculture in Pakistan, ADB Principal Water Resources Specialist Yaozhou Zhou said.
“This project will build irrigation channels and dams and introduce efficient water usage systems and practices to help farmers increase food production and make more money,” he further added.
Among the infrastructure that will be upgraded or built for the project is a dam able to hold 36 million cubic meters of water, 276 kilometres of irrigation channels and drainage canals, and facilities that will make it easier for people, especially women, to access water for domestic use, total 16,592 hectares (ha) of land will be added or improved for irrigation, the statement read.
The project will also establish a water resources information system that will use high-level technology, such as satellite and remote sensing to do river basin modelling and identify degraded land for rehabilitation.
ADB will also administer grants from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction (JFPR) and the High-Level Technology Fund (HLT Fund) worth $3 million and $2 million, respectively, for the project.