New Delhi, April 16 -- Water levels in major reservoirs across the northern and eastern regions have dipped below last year's, the Central Water Commission (CWC) said in its weekly bulletin. They also had below-normal storage-the average storage of the past 10 years.

Falling water levels are a cause for concern as they can impact irrigation and hydropower generation.

The northern region, including Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Rajasthan, has 11 reservoirs under CWC monitoring and a total live storage capacity of 19.836 BCM (billion cubic metres). As per the reservoir storage bulletin, as of 3 April, the total live storage available was 4.555 BCM, which is 22.96% of the reservoirs' total live storage capacity, compared with 32.32% during...