With water levels in lakes rising, Mumbai civic body to roll back water cut

The cut was being imposed in the city since November 2018.

With the water levels in seven lakes supplying water to the city touching 51%, the standing committee of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday approved rolling back the 10% water cut imposed in the city since November 2018. The decision will be implemented from Saturday.

Modak Sagar, Tansa, Vihar (in photo), Tulsi, Upper Vaitarna, Bhatsa and Middle Vaitarna are the seven lakes that supply water to Mumbai. (HT file)

Minister of state for urban development Yogesh Sagar on Thursday had asked the BMC to take the decision on the grounds that the lakes have 50% stock.

According to BMC data, the total water stock in Modak Sagar, Tansa, Vihar, Tulsi, Upper Vaitarna, Bhatsa and Middle Vaitarna is 7.43 lakh million litres, against the capacity of 14 lakh million litres. Tulsi lake overflowed last week, and Modak Sagar is likely to be full soon, as its water level stood at 82.31% on Thursday. The seven lakes are divided into two systems, the Vaitarna system that supplies water to the western suburbs and the island city, and Bhatsa system that supplies water to the eastern suburbs.

This year, the water levels had dipped to four per cent owing to delayed monsoon. The rain over the past 25 days has helped recover the shortfall. By mid-July, the water level was 76.71% in 2018, 73.15% in 2017. The civic body on Friday told the civic committee that due to rainfall in July, August and September, the water levels are expected to go up, and will be satisfactory.

Abhijit Samant, BJP corporator, also raised the issue of water wastage due to leakage in the city’s pipelines, to which the BMC replied saying that leakages around the city are constantly monitored, and in the recent past, almost 33,000 of them have been plugged.

Rohit Ahuja, a Versova resident, said, “For us water cut is not an issue considering our society does not get 24-hour water supply anyway. We get water supply in the morning and evening hours, hence water cuts or its roll back does not affect us directly, but it does have indirect effect.”