38 days of water left in Morbe dam, NMMC braces for more water cuts

Due to the delay in the monsoon onset and the fast-depleting reserves in Morbe reservoir, the civic administration of Navi Mumbai is likely to take expand the water cuts from one to two days a week

NAVI MUMBAI: Due to the delay in the monsoon onset and the fast-depleting reserves in Morbe reservoir, the civic administration of Navi Mumbai is likely to take stringent measures with regard to supply of water. In the coming weekend, the water department, Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) will convene a meeting to determine whether to implement water cuts two days of a week.

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“Usually the city receives rainfall from June 7 onwards and by June 19, the dam catchment area starts getting replenished, but this year there has been very scarce rainfall so far. A decision to whether to implement a cut and the manner in which this needs to be undertaken will be decided by this week. A meeting will be conducted with the Municipal commissioner to take the final call,” said city engineer Sanjay Desai.

The civic body foreseeing the situation had already begun with water cuts implemented once a day in a week. A day was assigned for each of the wards to undergo water cuts once a day in a week. “No sooner it was observed that the water storage in Morbe will last only for 90 days, it was decided to initiate preventive measures and once a week water cut were introduced. A review meeting is underway wherein the decision to increase the number of days of water cuts will be taken,” said the additional city engineer Manoj Patil

The water requirement of the city is fulfilled through NMMC owned Morbe Dam. Navi Mumbai is provided with a total of 488 million litres per day (MLD) of water daily. Administration’s concerns are based on the fast-depleting reserves at the dam. As per the daily water supply report of NMMC, last year the dam had received 63.40 mm rainfall and the dam level was recorded at 70.63 m. In striking contrast this year, the dam area till date has only received 18.20 mm rainfall and the water level is 68.89 m. “Since last year, too, the rainfall was not adequate enough to fill the dam to its full storage. As a result this year, there is no hold over reserve. Therefore the dam presently has only 24% storage. Based on the daily quantity supplied, the existing storage can be supplied only for the next 39 days unless drastic water cuts are implemented,” said an official from Morbe dam.

To further scale down the use of drinking water, NMMC will be providing water from the Sewerage Treatment Plant to the industries in the MIDC area. “The process to distribute STP water to industrial units can help in reducing the use of drinking water and that work is underway. Likewise, residents are also being asked to use water sparingly,” said Patil.