Rains raise lake levels to brim, Mumbai has enough water stock for 215 days

Mumbai gets water from lakes in Thane and Nashik districts, which have seen excess rainfall starting June 1.

Heavy rainfall over the weekend brought cheers for the city as the level of water in its seven main lakes have gone up by 56%, meaning that they have enough stock for 215 days.

Heavy rainfall over the weekend brought cheers as the level of water in the city’s seven main lakes has gone up by 56%. (Bachchan Kumar)

Modak Sagar, one of the seven lakes that supplies water to the city, started overflowing on Sunday afternoon. Tulsi lake overflowed earlier that week, while Tansa is near brim.

Mumbai gets water from Vihar, Tulsi, Bhatsa, Middle Vaitarna, Upper Vaitarna, Tansa and Modak Sagar, which are in Thane and Nashik districts.

“If the catchment areas also received the same amount of rainfall as the city, the water stock would have improved drastically and faster,” said an official from the civic hydraulic department, requesting anonymity.

Starting June 1, Thane district has received 75% excess rainfall, while Nashik has got 24% excess rainfall this season.

Tulsi and Vihar are located within city limits, within the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Vihar is just 0.29m from overflowing while Tansa is 1.51m away. While the other three lakes located outside city limits are also filling up fast, Bhatsa Lake, which caters to 50% of Mumbai’s water supply, had received 90mm of rainfall till Sunday morning.

The seven lakes have received 654mm of rainfall in 24 hours ending Sunday morning.

The city requires 4,200 million litres of water daily (MLD), of which the civic body supplies 3,800 MLD. The water stock on Sunday was 8.19 lakh million litres, compared to 8.99 lakh million litres on July 15 last year. The city needs 14.47 lakh million litres of water at the end of the monsoon every year to ensure there are no water cuts.