Mumbai: No water cuts in city this year, says BMC

Vihar lake seen from Powai. File pic

The city has enough stock of water in the lakes for the summer. The total water stock was around 44 per cent on March 10, which will last for almost another five months. This is the second year in a row when the city will not face water cuts in the summer. Last year, the city faced water cuts during the monsoon due to insufficient rain in June and July.

The city gets water from seven lakes - Bhatsa, Tansa, Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, Modak Sagar, Tulsi and Vihar which have a combined capacity of 14.47 lakh million litres of water. The BMC supplies 3,850 million litres of water every day to the city. Around 700 MLD water is being used by industries while the floating population - people coming from other cities - use around 50 MLD water. As on March 10, the total stock of water was 6.39 lakh million litres. Last year, on the same day, the water stock was 6.82 lakh million litres.

In 2019, when the city was facing a water cut, the total water stock was 5,42,056 million litres or 37 per cent of the stock on March 4. The BMC had imposed a 10 per cent water cut from November 2018 till July 2019.

"Though the water stock is slightly lower than what it was last year, it will be enough till the start of the monsoon and the city will not face a water cut this year," said Ajay Rathore, chief of Hydraulic Engineering Department of the BMC. He added, "Even if there is enough water stock and probably no water cut this year, citizens should use water judiciously."

Last year, though the lakes had enough stock through summer, poor initial rainfall left only 30 per cent of the stock at the end of July. The city faced 20 per cent water cuts from August 5 but the heavy rain filled up the lakes to 94 per cent within a month and the water cut was withdrawn.

Water in city's lakes
Upper Vaitarna: 1,48,040
Modak Sagar: 35,020
Tansa: 46,512
Middle Vaitarna: 51,092
Bhatsa: 3,37,521
Vihar: 16,613
Tulsi: 4,575
(Volume in million litres)