Rain ensures lakes supplying water to Mumbai are 95% full

Stock will last 285 days, instead of ideal 335 days; three lakes are overflowing

MUMBAI: Heavy rain in the catchment areas during the early months of monsoon have filled the seven lakes that supply water to the city up to 95.53% as on Saturday morning at 6am.

That means the city will have enough water stock for 285 days. The lakes have to be filled up to 100% by October 1, after which the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) can officially review the lake levels and announce there will be no water cuts next year.

As of now, three out of the seven lakes are overflowing while the remaining are yet to fill to the brim. Tansa lake, which started overflowing on July 17, is not overflowing anymore.

The city needs 14.473 lakh million litres of water to ensure no water cuts but has only 12.773 lakh million litres of water.

The BMC takes stock of the lake level on October 1 annually and unless the seven lakes are filled up to 100% by the end of September, the civic body cannot take a final call on the water cuts for the rest of the year. Mumbai gets water from Vihar, Tulsi, Bhatsa, Middle

Vaitarna, Upper Vaitarna, Tansa and Modak Sagar, which are in Thane and Nashik districts.

A senior official from the hydraulic engineering (HE) department said, “We need water (stock) for a total of 335 days, which is possible only when the lakes are filled for up

to 100% on or before October 1. The water stock as of now is sufficient for another 285 days.” As of now, only Vihar and Tulsi, which are both located within city limits, are full up to 100%.

However, both these lakes store only 35,744 million litres of the total 14.47 lakh million litres of water, which the city needs.

Modak Sagar is filled up to 99.99% and is only 0.09 metres shy of reaching the 100% mark. Bhatsa, which alone supplies 50% of the city’s water supply, has 6,81,096 million litres of water.

Out of this, 5,75,700 million litres is allocated for the city

civic body and the rest is meant for Thane region and irrigation purposes.

This means that as far as the city’s needs are concerned, the lake is full.

The city requires 4,200 million litres of water daily (MLD), of which the civic body supplies 3,800 MLD.