Mumbai’s water stock up from 5 to 12% in one week, still lesser than last year’s 22%
Despite receiving over one lakh million litres of water in the last one week, the city’s seven water supplying reservoirs don’t have enough stock for the BMC to withdraw the water cut (Representational Image, Courtesy: Numerical)
The water stock in seven reservoirs which supply water to Mumbai has risen from 5 to 12 percent in the last week thanks to the heavy downpour.
According to Ashok Tewadiya, chief engineer of the Hydraulic Engineering Department, the total water stock in the lakes had risen to 12 percent as of Thursday morning. It stood at 11 percent till Wednesday morning and rose up to 12 percent yesterday, he said.
The city received around one lakh million litres of water since June 27, when the total water stock stood at just 5 percent. While the city received more rains than the catchment areas, the continuous showers resulted in decent water storage in the lakes.
Due to the late onset of monsoon and low water stock, the civic body had to draw on the reserve stock in the lakes from June 27.
The BMC supplies 3,750 million litres of water daily to Mumbai which still falls short of the actual demand of 4,200 million litres. The water comes from seven reservoirs: Modak Sagar, Tansa, Vihar, Tulsi, Upper Vaitarna, Bhatsa and Middle Vaitarna.
Despite the rise in water levels, and forecast of healthy rains, the civic body has urged citizens to use the water sparingly.
“Even when we had only five per cent water left and were supplying the water from reserve stock, we had enough water to last till July end. Now our total water stock has gone up to 12 percent which indicates we have enough water for another few months and we are hoping some really good spells of rainfall, at least in catchment areas,” a BMC official was quoted saying.
The civic body had imposed a 10 percent water cut for residential and 15 percent cut for commercial and industrial premises since November last year after it found that the water stock may not suffice till July.
However, the municipal body is skeptical of withdrawing the cut for now as the water stock is far less compared to last year.
The lakes had 3.25 million litres (22.45 percent) of water stock on July 4, 2018 compared to the 1.73 lakh million litres as on July 4, 2019. In 2017, the lakes had 6.22 million litres of water (43.01 percent).
The BMC, reportedly, can only reconsider the cut once the lakes reach 23 percent capacity.
