Environment
Maharashtra’s 10% water cut explained
Maharashtra has directed all municipal corporations, municipalities and gram panchayats to impose a minimum 10% water cut from October 16 after a deficient monsoon, with drinking water given top priority and a 10% emergency buffer kept in every dam.
Maharashtra has ordered a minimum 10% water cut from October 16.
The reason is a deficient monsoon and the risk that El Nino persists into 2027.
Drinking water is the top priority.
Farmers are encouraged to adopt water-efficient irrigation.
Drought has been declared in 265 talukas.
Officials have declared drought in 265 talukas under the Trigger-1 criteria during the 2026 kharif season.
The Water Resources Department has prepared a dam-wise and use-wise water management plan that runs until August 31, 2027.
The plan allows for evaporation, silt accumulation and unauthorised extraction, and it assumes that a drought-like situation could develop.
Drinking water has been given the highest priority in the plan.
The state will also keep an additional 10% emergency buffer in every dam to ensure that reserves last through the dry months.
Local bodies must enforce the cut strictly and carry out leak-detection drives to reduce losses in supply networks.
Sewage treatment plants are to run at maximum capacity, and treated wastewater is to be used for gardening, construction and cleaning.
Industries have been asked to recycle or reuse at least 30% of the water they consume.
Irrigation ranks below drinking water, livestock and fodder in the order of priority, and among crops rabi foodgrains get priority.
Farmers have been encouraged to adopt water-efficient irrigation techniques.
The state government has also asked industries, farmers and citizens to conserve water.
Maharashtra has 358 talukas, so the 265 drought-declared talukas make up roughly three-quarters of the total.
Business Standard, Oneindia, Madhyamam and The Daily Jagran reported the October 16 start date and the 10% minimum.
A 10% cut means that each supplier must deliver at least a tenth less water than it did before the order took effect.
El Nino is a periodic warming of the central Pacific Ocean that is often linked with weaker monsoon rainfall in India.
Pavana Lake backwaters, Maharashtra (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0