AS HEAVY rain lashed Mumbai and Thane districts, a 42 per cent increase was recorded in water stock at the seven lakes that provide drinking water to the city. In four days, water stock in all seven reservoirs increased by 82,819 million litres.
With incessant and heavy rain along the West coast, including Mumbai and Thane for the last four days, water supply worth 21 days was added to the seven lakes supplying water to the city.
According to BMC data, as of July 7, all seven lakes have 2,76,129 million litres of water or 19.08 per cent of the total capacity of 14,47,363 lakh million litres.
A crowded platform at Kurla station. Amit Chakravarty
Mumbai draws water from Bhatsa, Middle Vaitarna, Upper Vaitarna, Tansa and Modak Sagar, which are in Thane and Nashik districts. Tulsi and Vihar are two lakes located within city limits in Sanjay Gandhi National Park.
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This year, due to the subdued rain in June, the water stock in the catchment areas of the lakes was very poor.
Bhatsa lake is the major supplier of water to the city and is at 20.70 per cent (1,48,462 million litres) of its capacity. Bhatsa also supplies water to neighbouring cities of Thane and Bhiwandi. In 24 hours, ending at 6 am on Thursday, Bhatsa lake received 127 mm of rain, categorised as ‘very heavy’.
All seven lakes received rain between 27 mm and 235 mm in 24 hours. Mumbai gets about 3,900 million litres of water daily from these seven lakes. On July 5, Powai Lake, which supplies water to industries, overflowed. For the first time this season, the total water stocks were better when compared to the previous two years.
As of July 7, water stocks in the seven lakes stood at 2.76 lakh million litres while last year on the same date the water quantum was 2.66 lakh million litres.
In the year 2020, the total water quantum stood at 2.04 lakh million litres.
Following an inadequate rain in the catchment areas of lakes, the city is reeling under a 10 per cent water cut from June 27. In August 2020, Mumbai faced water cuts as water levels in catchment areas of the lakes were low due to lack of rain. A delegation of BJP on Wednesday met the civic administrator and municipal commissioner IS Chahal to register a complaint of higher water cut than 10 per cent in some areas.
Water cut today
Water supply will not be available in some areas of Ward F North and South from 4-10 am on July 8 due to a pipeline burst in front of Parsi Gymkhana in Dadar.
Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/mumbai-water-stock-in-reservoirs-goes-up-in-four-days-8015908/