10% water cut to continue for next two weeks: BMC

In what may bring a trace of relief to the city, good rainfall in the past two days has increased the water stock in the lakes that supply water to the city by 40 days.

In what may bring a trace of relief to the city, good rainfall in the past two days has increased the water stock in the lakes that supply water to the city by 40 days.

HT Image

The civic body, however, has chosen to be cautious by deciding to continue with the 10% water cut, which has been in force since July 1.

Useful water content in the lakes has increased by over 1 lakh million litres in two days - from 42,85,32 million litres on Monday to 56,87,28 million litres on Wednesday.

“There was a thought given to increase the extent of water cut, but there has been good rainfall in the past few days in the lakes. Hence, it was decided to continue only with the 10% cut for the next 15 days,” said Rahul Shewale, chairman of civic standing committee. The ongoing festive season was also cited as a reason behind the decision to not increase the water cut.

“It is the month of Shravan and Ramzan and therefore, there is no good reason to dampen the festive spirit in the city,” Shewale added.

Civic officials from the BMC's hydraulic engineer's department claimed that the past 48 hours saw a good measure of rainfall in the catchment areas of lakes, taking the city's water stock to six months.

“The lakes have received 75% of rain that was received at this time last year, and we now have 191 days of water stock,” said Anil Tawadia, deputy hydraulic engineer.

In addition to this, the civic body is also relying on the Middle Vaitarna dam, which would soon become the seventh source of water to the city. Through this, the city is likely to get an additional 455 million litres of water every day from the dam from September.