Heavy rain replenishes water levels in lakes supplying water to Mumbai

“Considering that monsoon has started early this year, the rate of evaporation has gone down since the maximum temperature levels have shown a decline. Therefore, the chances of fast depletion of water no longer persists. We have a good rainfall forecast this year, as a result of which no water cut has been proposed. Since last week, the catchment areas in Mumbai are also witnessing good rainfall,” said a civic official.

Owing to heavy rainfall in the region, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) had kept Mumbai under an orange alert for 24 hours on Thursday, along with the adjoining Thane, Ratnagiri and Raigad districts. Meanwhile, Palghar district was kept under a red alert.

The BMC’s record shows that in the last 24 hours, the catchment areas of Tansa lake recorded 143mm rain, followed by 141mm at Bhatsa lake, 126mm at Modak Sagar, 121mm at Middle Vaitarna, 84mm at upper Vaitarna, 64mm at Tulsi and 45mm at Vihar lake.

BMC’s data also shows that on the same date (June 20) last year, the water level stood at 5.32 per cent while it was 7.72 per cent in 2023.

While the BMC supplies around 3,850 million litres daily (MLD), the present stock is likely to last for the next 30 days and the overall stock lasts for around 375 days. However, owing to incidents of leakage and pipeline bursts, a significant quota of water gets wasted every year.