Mumbai: Two days of heavy rainfall raises water stock to 10.5%

Intermittent rainfall in the catchment areas of seven lakes has increased the water stock by 21,281 million litres over the last two days. As a result, all the lakes that supply water to the city now have 10.51 per cent of the 14,47,363 million litres of their total capacity.

This stock will last for the next 40 days. Presently, Mumbaikars have been facing a 10 per cent water cut since June 27. After the onset of the monsoon, the city experienced a good spell of downpours, especially in the catchment areas on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the water stock in all the lakes increased by 16,000 million litres and by 5,000 million litres on Thursday morning.

The rain added water to last five days more to the present stock in the lakes. The most rainfall recorded in the last 24 hours was in the Tulsi lake (120 mm) and Vihar (112 mm) lakes located in Mumbai.

In August 2020, Mumbai faced water cuts as the water stock suffered due to low poor rainfall in catchment areas. While no water cuts were imposed in 2019 – owing to good rains – Mumbai faced a 10 per cent water cut in 2018, 20 per cent in 2016 and a 25 per cent cut in 2014.

The BMC takes an annual stock of the water levels in lakes on October 1.

The BMC supplies 3,850 million litres of water daily, from Modak Sagar, Tansa, Vihar, Tulsi, Upper Vaitarna, and Bhatsa lakes to the city. In recent years, the civic body started looking for additional sources of water, with experiments like rainwater harvesting, digging borewells, desalination, etc.

But, the monsoon has always been the main source of water for the city.

Published on: Friday, July 01, 2022, 09:19 AM IST