Mumbai lake level crosses 85%, stock enough for 320 days

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials said the city may not have any water cuts this year due to available water stock which is likely to last till next monsoon.

Water level in lakes supplying drinking water to Mumbai crossed 85% mark on Friday morning. The city now has water stock sufficient for next 320 days, according to civic officials.

Vihar lake, which supplies water to Mumbai, has already overflown this monsoon. (HT FILE)

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials said the city may not have any water cuts this year due to available water stock which is likely to last till next monsoon. A BMC official said, “The total lake levels going above 85-90% is considered to be safe, and hopefully we should not see any water cuts until next year for now.”

However, the civic body will continue monitoring rainfall till mid-September.

Of the seven lakes supplying drinking water to the city, four lakes — Tulsi, Vihar, Tansa and Modak Sagar — have already overflown once this monsoon. According to BMC’s data, the livestock of water is 100% in Tulsi and Vihar, followed by Tansa with 99% and Modak Sagar with 88% water.

Between July 16 and July 23, the catchment areas of the lakes received maximum of its stock. On July 17, the overall water level in seven lakes was just 17% and the BMC was considering announcing water cut. However, by July 22, water level had crossed the 50% mark, followed by 60% on July 24 and 70% on July 28. Last year at this time, the water level was 87% and it was 94% in 2019.

Bhatsa dam in Thane which supplies 55% of the total annual water requirement of the city has 83% water stock which was 85% last year at this time. In case of Upper Vaitarna, water level is 73% as of Friday. Last year at this time, the level stood at 71%. Middle Vaitarna has 91% of water stock as opposes to 93% last year at this time.

The seven lakes are bifurcated into two systems —Vaitarna system which supplies to the western suburbs and the island city, and Bhatsa system which supplies to the eastern suburbs.

The civic body supplies 3,850 million litres of water daily against the city’s demand for 4,200 million litres. In order to meet the shortfall, BMC has been exploring several ways to increase water supply to the city. A month ago, the civic body signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with an Israel-based firm for the city’s first desalination project at Manori in Malad. Under this project, BMC plans to turn seawater into drinking water, and the pilot project is expected to be ready by 2025.