Rain bounty for lakes: More in store,say BMC officials

Vehar,one of the oldest lakes in the city,received 360.80 mm rainfall compared with 40.80 mm last year until this time and Tulsi has received 329 mm of rainfall as against 39 mm last year. Upper Vaitarna received 75.80 mm of rainfall this year compared with 88 mm of rainfall last year,while Bhatsa received 113 mm of rainfall this year compared with 80 mm last year until this time.

“We are expecting the levels in all lakes including Upper Vaitarna and Bhatsa to rise substantially if there is sustained and heavy rainfall over the next few days. It takes at least 15-20 days after the monsoon sets in for the lakes to record a substantial increase in water levels as the water is first absorbed by the land surrounding the lakes and does not add to the water levels,” said R Bamble,Chief Hydraulic Engineer,BMC. The civic administration has planned to use additional water from Modak Sagar while reducing its water use from state-owned Upper Vaitarna. The city gets water from BMC-owned Tulsi,Vehar,Modaksagar and Tansa lakes and the state-owned Upper Vaitarna and Bhatsa. Currently the civic administration supplies 3,600 million litres of water daily to the city. “We had stopped lifting water from Upper Vaitarna for the past few days owing to work at Middle Vaitarna. We are now lifting only the bare minimum from Upper Vaitarna as we want to use more water from Modak Sagar,” said Bamble. The total available water stock in all six lakes is 1,77,040 million litres as on June 12,6 am,compared with 46,854 million litres last year this time.