Modak Sagar is third lake to overflow, no water cuts needed

With continuous rain in its catchment area, Modak Sagar overflowed on Wednesday morning, making it the third lake to reach its overflow mark in just a week.

With continuous rain in its catchment area, Modak Sagar overflowed on Wednesday morning, making it the third lake to reach its overflow mark in just a week.

HT Image

Tulsi lake overflowed on Friday, and on Sunday, Tansa lake reached its maximum capacity. Situated in Thane district, Modak Sagar, one of the city's largest lakes, supplies around 465 million litres per day (mld) of water to the city on daily basis.

Collectively, the six lakes — Tulsi, Vihar, Tansa, Modak Sagar, Upper Vaitarna and Bhatsa — supply about 3,500 mld of water to the city.

Last year, Modak Sagar lake crossed the overflow mark on August 8, but this year it occurred earlier. Tulsi reached its maximum capacity on Sept 4 last year and Tansa overflowed on Sept 3.

“Currently, there is around 9.5 lakh mld of water, but our requirement is 14lakh mld. Water levels in the lakes are very good,” said a senior civic official from the hydraulic department.

Modak Sagar contributes about 12% of the total water supply to the city. Bhatsa and Upper Vaitarna, which contribute about 56% and 17.5% respectively of the total water supply, are yet to reach the brim.