Full lakes beckon this Ganesh utsav

Spell of heavy rains will ease water woes in the city

Spells of heavy rains in the city and its suburbs in the last few days have led to a marked increase in the level of water in seven main lakes. The rise in the level of the seven main lakes supplying water to Mumbai means they have enough stock to avoid any possible cut in water supply to local residents in the next one year, said civic officials on Monday.

“Heavy rains in the catchment areas of the seven lakes that supply drinking water to the city have filled them considerably.

“All the seven lakes together have 94.89 per cent stock of the total water supply required,” a statement issued by the hydraulic engineering department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.

Notably, the stock in all the seven reservoirs crossed the 13.73 lakh million litre mark on August 26 as against 14.47 lakh million litre required by October 1 to avoid any water cut in Mumbai for the next one year.

“We have received decent rainfall in the catchment areas which have resulted filling of all the lakes considerably. We may not face a water cut for the next one year,” said an engineer from the department. “There is still a lot of time for the southwest monsoon to withdraw and we are confident of a further rise in the water level of lakes,” he said.

Whether there will be any water cut or not will be known only on October 1 (after the end of monsoon) taking into account prevailing stock in the lakes, the official said. “Thanks to excellent rainfall in catchment areas, Tulsi, Modak Sagar and Vihar lakes overflowed in July,” he said.

Bhatsa lake, which supplies almost half of the water needed for Mumbai, is filled up to 94 per cent of its capacity, the official said.

Water for Mumbai comes from seven reservoirs. These are: Modak Sagar (built in 1957), Tansa (built in 1925), Vihar (built in 1860), Tulsi (built in 1879), Upper Vaitarna (built in 1973), Bhatsa (built in 1983) and Middle Vaitarna (built in 2012).

The Bhatsa and Upper Vaitarna lakes are managed by the Maharashtra government and the rest by the BMC. The BMC supplies 3,750 million litres of water everyday to the island city and its suburbs, which still falls short of the actual demand of 4,200 million litres.

In the past, insufficient rainfall had forced the civic body to impose water cuts.

Notably, stock in all the seven reservoirs crossed 13.73 lakh million litre mark on August 26 as against 14.47 lakh million litre required by October 1 to avoid any water cut in Mumbai for the next one year