BMC officials say water stock unlikely to last for 50 days

A day after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) did a compete U-turn on the threat of water cuts in the city due to inadequate rainfall, instead emphatically saying that the city has enough water stock to last for 50 more days, insiders in the civic body said that the BMC’s prediction was unrealistic.

A day after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) did a compete U-turn on the threat of water cuts in the city due to inadequate rainfall, instead emphatically saying that the city has enough water stock to last for 50 more days, insiders in the civic body said that the BMC’s prediction was unrealistic.

HT Image

However, civic officials are optimistic that the current dry spell will not last too long.

In the civic standing committee on Wednesday, senior civic officials had admitted that if it doesn’t rain till July 20, water cuts might have to be imposed in the city. However, on Thursday, the BMC completely changed its stand on the issue, instead saying that the city’s water stock would suffice for 50 more days.

A senior civic official, on condition of anonymity said: “The calculation that was involved in arriving at this conclusion takes into consideration the water in all city lakes as of today. This includes the water stock in the reserved stocks too, which is generally never drawn. As a result, it gave the result that the stock of water will last for 50 more days, which is a tad unrealistic.”

As a result, another official said, “In case it doesn't rain for another 50 days, which is highly unlikely, the city will be completely out of water stock, including its reserve stocks.”

The official said that reserved stocks are normally stored for the days when the city is short on water.

“Unless the situation gets as bad as it got two years back, we have no plans to use the reserve stocks. Ideally, the calculation should have left out these reserve stocks,” he added.