This year’s monsoon gave Mumbai eight per cent fewer water stock (13,13,960 million litres) than last year (14,34,103 million litres).
Consequently, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is now looking at the measures to be taken – getting water from other source or imposing water cuts – in the coming months.
According to civic officials, the stock available in the seven lakes that supply water to the city is 90.78%, sufficient to last 304 days, as opposed to the 335-day stock needed to ensure there are no water cuts till the next monsoon.
The civic body reviews the lake levels at the start of October every year (the end of the monsoon) to plan for the entire year till the next monsoon.
We need 14.473 lakh million litres for 335 days,” said Ashok Tawadiya, chief engineer, hydraulic department of the civic body.
Currently, none of the seven lakes is filled up to 100%, compared to last year, when two of them had reached the maximum capacity.
Bhatsa, which supplies 50% of the water stock to Mumbai, has 91.53% water stock, compared to last year’s 99.12%.
Modak Sagar has 71.28% water, lower than last year’s 95.43%.
Tansa lake has 90.29% useful content (99.14% in 2017), Vihar lake has 92.54% stock, which was 99.34% last year and Tulsi lake has 93.97% stock, which was 98.84% last year.
We will prepare the lake level review report within a week and decide accordingly.