Mumbai may not face water cuts this year: BMC

The BMC supplies 3,750 million litres of water daily, against the city’s demand of 4,200 million litres. On an average, each household in Mumbai gets about three to four hours of water daily.

With 96% stock available in the seven lakes that supply water to the city, Mumbaiites are unlikely to face water cuts this year, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has said.

Residents of Dharavi protest at the G north municipal office against water shortage at Dadar in Mumbai. According to the BMC, the water level was 95.40% last year at this time and 95.21% in 2017. (Kunal Patil/ HT Photo)

As of Thursday, the water level in the seven lakes of the city was 96.53%. Last November, the BMC had to announce a 10% water cut owing to fear of scarcity.

The BMC supplies 3,750 million litres of water daily, against the city’s demand of 4,200 million litres. On an average, each household in Mumbai gets about three to four hours of water daily. According to the BMC, the water level was 95.40% last year at this time and 95.21% in 2017.

“Currently, the situation does not mandate a water cut and September is also going to receive the required rainfall, as per forecast. There will only be a problem in case there is no rainfall for the whole of September, which is unlikely,” said Ashok Tawadia, deputy municipal commissioner, hydraulics department, BMC.

The city received 2,535mm of rain in the past three months. The monsoon average is 2,317 mm. According to the BMC, the seven lakes (Modak Sagar, Tansa, Vihar, Tulsi, Upper Vaitarna, Bhatsa and Middle Vaitarna) have 13.97 lakh million litres of water as of Thursday.

The full capacity is around 14.47 lakh million litres

Tulsi Lake, which is situated within the boundary of the city, has already overflowed, along with Tansa, Vehar and Bhatsa, and in the coming days, Modak Sagar, followed by the Upper Vaitarna and Middle Vaitarna lakes, are likely to overflow.