Powai lake overflows; lakes supplying drinking water do not get much rainfall

Powai lake began to overflow on Saturday as the city received heavy rainfall in the last few days

Powai lake began to overflow on Saturday as the city received heavy rainfall in the last few days.

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The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in a statement on Saturday said the lake overflowed 24 days earlier in 2021 when compared to 2020. In 2020, the lake overflowed on July 5. The artificial lake was built in 1890 at an expense of around ₹40 lakh and it has a capacity to store 5,450 million litres of water in it, which is used mainly only for industrial use and not for drinking purpose.

Meanwhile, though the city has received heavy rainfall in the past few days, the seven lakes that supply drinking water to the city did not see significant increase in the water stock as their catchment areas did not get enough rainfall, said BMC officials.

According to the data, as of Saturday, lake level at the seven lakes was 185,971 million litres or around 12.85% of the total capacity of 1,447,363 million litres. The same on Tuesday was 185,864 million litres. This indicates that not much has changed in the ongoing week.

A BMC official said, “Though the city has got heavy rainfall, catchment areas have not got much rainfall, due to which the lakes have not seen any major increase in water levels. Currently, we have enough water for around 50 days and there are no plans for water cuts.”