Gazette’s Famous Water Pictures Series:  The Bendsura Project

The Bendsura Project is now empty. The white line on the dam wall 20 feet up marks the old water line when the reservoir was flush with water just a few years back.

The picture above shows the severity of drought in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

After several years of drought the reservoir that once supplied water to the entire nearby city of Beed is now empty. Half of this western state — 28,000 villages — is battling a severe water shortage.

The reservoir project dates to 1955 when the reservoir was constructed on the small Bindusara (a.k.a. Bendsura) River.

Below is what the Bendsura Project looked like at one time: