Porbandar Jamnagar Junagadh District Monsoon News Gujarat India

Fresh rains give state new hope.

Neighboring state Rajasthan may have declared drought in 26 out of 33 districts, but the fresh spell of rains for the past couple of days has given a new hope to Gujarat.

What is more encouraging is that the present level of water in Sardar Sarovar Narmada dam, which is the lifeline of the state, is 120.87 m.

The crest level of the dam was 121.92 m. Officials said with Narmada brimming, the drinking water problems in the state have been solved.

Officials said the situation of Gujarat was better than any other part of the country. Though south, north and central Gujarat have received deficit rainfall, Saurashtra and Kutch were the only area in the entire country which had excess rainfall.

According to India Meteorological Department, till August 26, Saurashtra and Kutch on an average received 39.11 cm rainfall.

However, the rest of the state has received 44.26 cm of deficit rainfall.

The state average rainfall was around 96.09 cm. Officials said that just before the fresh spell of rains, there were 11 districts which had received rainfall less than 40 per cent of its average annual rainfall, but this decreased to just five per cent on Friday.

Officials said three districts have already received over 100 per cent of their annual rainfall. Porbandar has received 183.84 per cent of its annual rainfall, followed by Junagadh (124.99 per cent) and Jamnagar (120.01 per cent).

The parched region of Kutch has also received over 96.88 per cent of its average annual rainfall. On Friday too, rains continued to lash several parts of the state. Of the nearly 225 talukas, 107 talukas received heavy to moderate rainfall.

The highest rainfall reported was 10.4 cm in Songadh in Tapi region.