An unprecedented water crisis due to a dry spell has prompted the Akola Municipal Corporation in Maharashtra's Vidharbha region to ban immersion of Ganesh idols made of plaster of paris in artificial water tanks on the eastern bank of river Morna.

The authorities, who have decided to allow symbolic immersion of idols of up to three feet in the tanks on September 27, the day of immersion, still face problems regarding idols more than 10 feet high, AMC sources said on Saturday.

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A meeting to this effect was held where district collector Eknath Davle directed the authorities to use whirlpools at Gopalkhed, Kurankhed and Donad villages for immersing idols more than 10 feet high, the sources said.

But the AMC has made no arrangements to this effect citing lack of requisite number of expert swimmers and rafts.

There are as many as 28 idols with height more than 10 feet installed in the city.

The Morna river passing through the city has gone dry for the first time in hundred years.