Poor rain: 20% water cuts likely across Mumbai

With the monsoon playing truant in seven catchment areas that supply water to the city, the civic body is likely to impose a 20% or less water cut on both commercial and residential areas across the city.

With the monsoon playing truant in seven catchment areas that supply water to the city, the civic body is likely to impose a 20% or less water cut on both commercial and residential areas across the city.

With no significant increase in the water stock of the city, a water cut is the only option, said civic officials. The stock of water available in seven lakes supplying water to the city is sufficient just for 251 days. Only four days of water stock has been added in the past four days, forcing the BMC to initiate water cuts in the city.

However, after a long dry spell of about a month, the catchment areas finally received a good amount of rainfall since Monday night, leading to a rise in lake levels. However, civic officials said there is need to save water because the lakes are yet to be filled to its full capacity.

One of the civic officials, on request of anonymity, said, “The catchments have been receiving good rainfall since Monday night, but we need more such heavy spells to compensate the quantity that could not be collected for the entire month of August. We need another 5 lakh million litres to be stored to last us till next monsoon.”