Schools in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts of Karnataka will re-open on Monday, after vacations were extended for a week due to the severe water crisis. Some schools had sent students home after the morning session on May 27, when they first re-opened, The News Minute reported.

“We had initially planned on re-opening the school on 27th May,” Anuradha Shivaram, the principal of Manipal School in Mangaluru told The News Minute. “Now, due to the water crisis, we had to postpone by a week and will reopen only on June 3. Our major challenge was to provide water for sanitation, which we have now stored and believe that it will suffice until rains start.” Some schools said they may have to resort to using water tankers if the situation does not improve. A few schools have had to dig borewells or wells for water.

Karnataka is among several states hit by acute water scarcity following a lack of pre-monsoon rainfall. Water rationing is in place in both Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts.

The water level in Baje Dam across the Swarna river, which meets the drinking water needs of Udupi city, has dropped and is now expected to only last for about five more days, The Hindu reported on Saturday.

Shivamogga city is also expected to face acute water shortage in the near future as the water level in Tunga dam is reaching a dead storage level and may only last till the end of June, according to ANI.

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The India Meteorological Department on Saturday said the monsoon will arrive on the southern coast on June 6. The monsoon usually reaches the southern tip of Kerala around June 1. The monsoon is expected to be normal this year. India receives 70% of the annual rainfall during the monsoon that plays an extremely crucial role in the agricultural sector.

Maharashtra

Nearly 25 lakh people in north Maharashtra are affected by water scarcity. Four of five districts in north Maharashtra – Ahmednagar, Jalgaon, Nashik and Dhule – have been affected by severe water shortage, according to The Times of India.

Around 5,100 villages in these districts are affected by drought, according to the Nashik divisional commissionerate. Of these, Ahmednagar is the worst with 3,325 facing the water crisis. Over 1,120 villages in Nashik, 219 in Jalgaon and 67 in Dhule are also affected.

Tamil Nadu

The Tamil Nadu government has sanctioned Rs 233 crore for several water projects in the state as the cumulative storage in the four reservoirs that supply water to Chennai has dipped to less than 1% of its total capacity. On Friday, it was 0.58% of the capacity.