Mumbai lakes 65% full thanks to heavy rainfall in catchment areas
Modak Sagar lake started overflowing on Saturday (Picture Courtesy: All India Radio)
In a good news for Mumbaikars, the seven lakes that supply water to the maximum city have reached 65 percent of their total water storage capacity as of Sunday morning thanks to heavy rainfall over the last few days.
Mumbai receives its water from seven lakes, of which five are situated in and around Nashik (Tansa, Modak Sagar, Bhatsa, Upper Vaitarna and Middle Vaitarna) and two in the metropolitan region (Tulsi and Vihar).
Due to heavy rainfall over the last four days, Tansa reached its maximum capacity on Sunday while Modak Sagar – one of the biggest water sources – started overflowing on Saturday.
The relatively smaller Tulsi and Vihar lakes, however, have not even reached 50 percent of their total capacity since the city has received relatively less rainfall than catchment areas outside.
Overall, the lakes together had around 9.5 lakh million litres water or 65 percent of their total capacity of 14.5 lakh million litres as of Sunday morning.
In comparison to the water level this year, the lakes had only reached 48 and 20 percent capacity as of July 16 in 2016 and 2015 respectively.
The sporadic rainfall had forced the civic body to impose a year round partial water cut in 2015. The cuts were finally withdrawn after the rainfall improved in 2016.
According to a senior civic official, the corporation may not impose any water cuts this year if the lakes remain full till the last week of September.
“The seven lakes can store around 14.4 lakh million litres of water combined. If they reach their maximum capacity and are able to remain full till the last week of September, we may not impose any water cuts this year too,” he told Local Press Co.
The city needs approximately 3,750 million litres of water everyday.
