AURANGABAD: The department
of water resources on Monday submitted a water utilization chart to the
state government, containing the requirement details of the region,
including Aurangabad Municipal Corporation, till July 31 this year.

According to the utilisation plan of water from the Jayakwadi reservoir
between April 27 and July 31, the reservoir has a total capacity of
2,909 MM3 (102.73 TMC of water), with a live storage capacity of 2,171
MM3 (76.67 TMC) and dead storage capacity of 738 MM3 (26.06 TMC).

The plan states that, in all 2.43 thousand million cubic feet of water
will be needed for fulfilling the drinking water needs of Aurangabad,
Jalna, Ambad and Gevrai. The current dead storage of the dam is 691 MM3
(ie, 24.399 TMC). Considering that the silt is around 30%, the water
available for drinking and other domestic and industrial purposes is
16.83 TMC.

An official from the water resources department said
that the daily water loss due to evaporation is more than the amount of
water required by Aurangabad city for a week. So, the amount of water
that will be utilised from Jayakwadi till July 31 will be far less than
the amount of water that will get evaporated in the same time.

The official also said that the administration will be able to provide
drinking water to the residents of Aurangabad at least once in three
days even in the months of May and June.

The utilisation plan
also shows an estimated loss of water through evaporation within the
same span of 95 days between April 27 and July 31 to 99.75 MM3 (3.52
TMC), while the drinking water utilisation has been estimated at 69 MM3
(2.43 TMC) making the total to 169 MM3 (5.96 TMC). The remaining water
in the dead storage, except for the silt, has been estimated at 16.83
TMC.