Nagpur: Amid the drought gloom in the rest of Vidarbha, there is some good news for farmers in Gondia as five of the six dams in the district are almost full, with over 90% of the storage reserved for irrigation.
The sixth dam, Rajiv Sagar (Bawanthadi), holds only 32% of its live storage, as its catchment area is mostly in Madhya Pradesh, the second state which borders Gondia, where there has been a deficit in rainfall. Rainfall this monsoon ranges from 894.6mm in Tirora to 1,327.4 mm in Deori among Gondia’s eight talukas. Itiadoh’s dam site has recorded 1,139mm rainfall since June 1, Sirpur 1,074mm and Kalisarar 1,035mm.
The five dams in Gondia have more storage than most in other districts of the region due to heavy rainfall over the last week in neighbouring Chhattisgarh as well as cloud cover in the district itself. Water is supplied for irrigation from these dams to Gadchiroli and Bhandara, apart from Gondia. The data was recorded by district officials on Sunday morning.