Gandhinagar: Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel today said there’s very less water present in over 200 dams across Gujarat, but at the same time, Sardar Sarovar Narmada dam has sufficient water to satisfy the needs of drinking water for all 4 crore beneficiaries in the state for entire year.

Patel in reply to media query said, ‘ there’s very less water storage at present in over 200 dams across Gujarat. Sardar Sarovar narmada dam which offers irrigation in lakhs of hectares of agricultural land and also satisfy drinking water to four crore people along with lakhs of cattle is also having limited water storage at present compared to other years as Narmada command area in upstream Madhya Pradesh has also not received sufficient rains. However the present storage of water in Sardar Sarovar dam is sufficient to satisfy the needs of drinking water for all four crore people of Gujarat for entire one year. So drinking water supply, including supply to Municipality, Municipal Corporation will continue.’

Patel said the farmers are being supplied irrigation water wherever it is possible and at the same time, the volume of drinking water in the dams is being kept reserved. He said the government has increased the hours of daily agricultural power supply from 8 hours earlier to 10 hours now. The government is bearing the cost of additional subsidy on this account.