But, in the drought-prone Marathwada region in Central Maharashtra, the water stock currently stands at just 20%, and, if the rains do not pick up over the next two months, the region may be staring at another year of scarcity in 2019, officials said.
Last year, the region’s water stock was 25.16%.
The monsoon season in Maharashtra will last another two months, and the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), has also forecast downpours from August 8 across Maharashtra, a senior official of the water resources department said.
In the state, the total water stock stands at 51.21% of the total capacity of reservoirs.
This situation is better than last year in the same month.
At present, Aurangabad, Jalna and Nanded are reeling under a water crisis, and the the highest number of tankers — 260 of them — has been deployed in the Aurangabad district alone.
“The situation may further worsen if there is no good rainfall in the district,” admitted an official from Aurangabad district collectorate, who did not want to be named.
So, we have at least two months’ time,” he said adding, “If the IMD’s forecast of a downpour from August 8 comes true, then that one push will take the existing stock to 60-70% .” He further said the low rainfall in the region will not affect the Jayakwadi dam, as it is not dependent on rains in Marathwada but on rain in the Nashik region, owing to its location.
The water stock situation of Amravati region in Vidarbha is better than Marathwada, as the it received more than 87% rains in July, above the normal limit.
Buldhana is the only district of the region which is using tankers (49) for water supply, said an officer from water resources department.

NAUNDERO: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and MPA-elect for PS-10, Faryal Talpur on Saturday assured PPP’s delegation from Ratodero led by its president Aijaz Laghari to resolve their critical issues, particularly water scarcity and high-level contamination of groundwater leading to fatal diseases.
Reportedly, during a meeting at Bhutto House, PPP’s delegation including advocate Inayat Morio, Ladies Wing local leader Nasiba Channa, Mumtaz Arbani, Syed Mahdi Shah informed her about the arsenic-rich ground water in Ratodero and that the defunct Reverse Osmosis (RO) water plant installed several years ago was not being repaired by the concerned department.
Drinking of arsenic-rich water over a long period could result in various health issues including skin cancer, cancers of the bladders, kidney and lung, and diseases of the blood vessels of legs and feet, high blood pressure and reproductive disorders, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
They complained that no development work had been carried out in several localities of the town and the heaps of garbage were not been lifted, causing environmental pollution.
Besides, they outlined the issue of water scarcity due to which growers of Garhi Khuda Bux, Ratodero, Naundero and adjoining villages have been facing severe hardships.
The plantation of paddy saplings, which has been already delayed for more than six weeks, requires sufficient amount of water, and the growers have planted Chinese seed instead of Irri-6, which is being exported from Pakistan.
Talpur addressed their grievances, and assured them that their issues would be resolved as soon as possible by the provincial government.
She contacted the Irrigation department secretary Jamal Mustafa Shah, and asked him to ensure supply of water to the crops.

This project aims to enhance the ability of people in communities on water conservation through the installation and repairs of rainwater catchment systems and through awareness raising activities.
As the second poorest country in terms of water, Jordan has long been plagued by water scarcity.
Moreover, the country has taken in 1.4 million Syrian refugees, with the majority living in local communities and of which 51 percent are school-age children.
As the Jordanian government has provided these children with education, more than 700,000 school-age children have stretched the limited resources of schools and community centers even thinner.
The redistribution of water resources has therefore become an important issue in the country.
The 10-month Rain Water Catchment Systems for Schools and Community Centers in Jordan project will install five and repair six rainwater catchment systems in 11 public schools and community centers in the northwestern province, which houses the largest number of Syrian refugees.
The project is expected to benefit more than 13,200 students and their family members.
The assistance to the Syrian refugee crisis in Jordan has shifted from short-term relocation to integration within communities.
The Rain Water Catchment Systems for Schools and Community Centers in Jordan project responds to this trend and helps the Jordanian people and refugees to make better use of the water.
The TaiwanICDF will dispatch a volunteer to participate in the project to deepen exchanges and share Taiwan’s experience, thereby enhancing Taiwan’s visibility in international aid.

Water scarcity has grown to be an alarming issue in current global affairs.
In 2011, 41 states around the globe have experienced some kind of water stress whilst 10 of those countries were close to depleting their supply of renewable fresh water.
Lack of access to safe, sufficient and affordable water sources has a detrimental effect on the health, dignity and prosperity of billions of people.
Seeing the significance of the aforementioned, the United Nations recognised water as a human right and thus a common public and environmental good, not longer than a decade ago.
It is often opposed by those who view water as a commodity which has to be priced to be used in an an efficient and sustainable way.
Unfortunately, water services are no exception.
In the latest decades, water privatisation has become a new opportunity for lucrative investment.
Willem Buiter, Citigroup’s top economist, emphasised ‘the water market will soon eclipse oil’.
The ‘new water barons’ — the Wall Street mega-banks and billionaire tycoons— are buying up water all over the world at an unprecedented pace.
Anti-water privatisation campaigns and protests have occurred all around the world.

Thus, in an average year, Israel relies for about half of its water supply on unconventional water resources, including reclaimed water and desalination.
However, even though the country has five large desalination plants along with wastewater reclamation facilities, this strategy is being pushed to its limits with the current five-year drought hitting the country.
The River Jordan Daniel Ventura (CC BY-SA 4.0) The 1995 Interim Agreement as part of the Oslo Peace Process provided certain quantities of water to the Palestinians but prevents them from drilling any new wells in the Mountain Aquifer.
However, the surface water of the Jordan River is still in dispute with Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestinians.
Jordan is the only country that has signed a water-sharing agreement with Israel to share the Jordan River’s waters.
"Israel definitely puts conservation on the back-burner.
Another consideration is the security risks the desalination plants pose.
All this and Israel has plans to refill the Sea of Galilee with desalinated water starting next year, despite the ecological damages that could result.
And the temperatures are not expected to moderate any time soon.
However, more dangerous are the fires being set by incendiary balloons and kites.

Kochi: The Guruvayur municipal corporation will soon draft a water policy based on the findings of a water audit conducted by the SCMS Water Institute at SCMS College of Engineering, Karukutty, Ernakulam.
The SCMS Institute had recently completed the water audit and submitted a report to the civic body.
As per the audit, hotels, lodges and restaurants which cater to over 3.5 crore pilgrims every year are the major water consumers.
“The water audit has been approved by the municipal council based on which a comprehensive water policy will be drafted soon.
A comprehensive project worth `10 crore under AMRUT scheme has also been proposed.
Vinod, municipal vice-chairman, told DC.
There are more than 200 hotels, 138 lodges and nearly 180 restaurants in the municipal area with an average daily water demand of 5.5 million litres.
A total of 47 lakh litres of water is being brought to Guruvayur daily from other areas.
The total demand is 21 MLD, including the domestic, commercial and agricultural sectors.
The survey has also identified the water-stressed areas, assessed the quality of water and its availability from alternative sources to meet future demand.

Rawalpindi: The residents of Chaklala Scheme-III are facing acute water shortage due to faulty tubewell and filtration plant of Rose and Jasmine Garden for the past three days.
The residents are neithergetting water from tubewell nor from filtration plant.
It is the only filtration plant in the area for thousands of residents of Chaklala Scheme-III.
Rose and Jasmine Garden tubewell and filtration plant Chaklala Scheme-III In-Charge Muhammad Sadiq told ‘The News’ that there was a fault in tubewell and filtration plant therefore public was facing difficulties for some days.
“We are trying to remove the fault in the tubewell and filtration plant.
Public will get water within 24 hours,” he claimed.
He also said that low power voltage was also creating difficulties for them.
The residents of Chaklala Scheme-III have complained that they do not get adequate water supply as its consumption increases manifold in summer and water scarcity comes up every year.
Reportedly, residents of several parts of Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) and city including Imambara Mohalla, PIA Colony, Mohalla Kareempura, Mohalla Raja Sultan, Shah Piyara Mohallah, Krishanpura, Bhabra Bazaar, Chur, Committee Chowk, Pirwadhai, Allahabad, Afshan Colony, Peoples Colony, Misrial Road, Dhoke Syedan, Bakra Mandi and other areas are facing water scarcity.

LAHORE: Farmers and ginners are expecting cotton production of around 11 million bales this crop year against the official target of over 14 million due to poor quality seeds, late sowing, water shortage and low acreage in high-yielding region.
Officials were, however, upbeat on Saturday about the harvest level similar to that was achieved in 2017/18.
Cotton production stood at 11.5 million bales in last season of 2017/18.
The official data showed that crop cultivation in Sindh, during the current season, witnessed decrease of 31 percent as compared to corresponding period of the last season.
Only 68 percent sowing has been recorded in the province compared with the target due to severe shortage of water.
Farmers said around half of cotton planted this season was delayed due to historic low water flows, leading to slow place of cotton sowing.
Khalid Mehmood Khokar, president of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad said cotton production could barely reach 10 million bales against the official target of 14.37 million bales.
“If Punjab is able to produce six million bales and Sindh three million bales, I think it would be great achievement given the present bleak scenario,” Khokar, who is also a cotton grower from Multan.
The official said there was water shortage during the sowing period, but later rains have helped in meeting irrigation needs of the crop.
The provincial Directorate General of Pest Warning and Quality Control of Pesticides registered some pest incidences of white fly, jassid, thrips, mealy bug and CLCV in some districts of Punjab.

In June, experts at the Council on Foreign Relations debated the issue of “Countdown to Day Zero,” when a city or country could run out of clean drinking water, and the connection between water scarcity and security.
“And we’ve seen that with too little water as well,” he added.
And, again, we saw 230,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes.
Wilson said countries of all stripes have failed to prepare for the worst, citing the lead-contaminated drinking water in Flint, Michigan, and droughts in California.
He added that the Cape Town crisis shows that it’s usually the poor who are left behind, while the wealthy communities have an abundance of water.
Cheslow saw these inequities in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
“And it’s unclear if the institutional arrangements will hold in coming years.” “We can think about other trans-boundary situations that are quite familiar to us — like the Nile, where Ethiopia’s construction of the new dam is seen as a threat to Egypt, in particular.
Another solution to the water scarcity issue that all three experts touched on was desalinization.
She observed that when it rained, a small parking lot would often flood, and the local people there, with the assistance of the hospital, desalinized this water to make it drinkable.
But Wilson warned that desalinization is not a long-term solution, noting the sheer amount of energy needed for the process, which in turn is reliant on water.

The kingdom’s “very well-developed experience in the field of water management has made Morocco a model in comparison with other Arab and African countries,” explained Charafat Afilal, Morocco’s state secretary in charge of water.
The shortages were nothing more than the temporary result of recent droughts, she explained.
Accounting for 15 percent of the Moroccan GDP, agriculture is a mainstay of the kingdom’s economy.
But more than that, it’s a pillar of stability, employing 39 percent of Moroccans and 80 percent of the rural population.
French ecologists had long imagined North Africa as the lost “Granary of Rome,” whose rich soil had supplied wheat and other cereals for most of the Roman empire.
Adopting farming techniques that had recently seen success in California—where massive irrigation projects had made its similarly arid land an agricultural powerhouse—the French switched out cereals for fruit and vegetables.
On the eve of independence, vegetables and citrus fruits had made up 20 percent of Morocco’s foreign revenue, and the portion would only grow as World Bank loans and special trade agreements with France pushed Hassan II to expand commercial farming.
Over the past century, Morocco’s water supply has been piped into the global economy.
“We demand to restore sovereignty over our food and the right to produce crops that meet our basic needs.” As the group points out, the protests in Zagora are just the latest in over two decades of struggles against water mismanagement across cities like Tangier, Sefrou, and Casablanca.
Will the government heed their warning before the taps run dry?