Regular cloud seeding from next monsoon,says BMC

Based on their recommendations and suggestions,the civic administration will make a budget provision from next financial year. According to Rahul Shewale,Shiv Sena corporator and Standing Committee chairman,“Although the cloud seeding procedure was not taken up this year,we have decided to conduct the experiment regularly from next year. This will help the BMC gain experience in the procedure and help us tide over any possible water shortage in the future.”

The much controversial cloud seeding proposal of the civic administration,which was expected to augment rainfall during the deficient monsoon until earlier last month,had finally been scrapped after most of the lakes supplying water to the city started to fill up. The proposal had come under flak as the cost had shot up from Rs 12 crore to Rs 24 crore.

After Israel’s national water company,Mekorot,which was roped in to conduct the experiment,refused to supply the aircraft needed for cloud seeding,the civic body had decided to rent one from a South African company. Amid the ballooning costs,confusion and lack of clarity over the success of the procedure,the BMC had been delaying the procedure for over two months.

According to officials,a similar experiment conducted in 2009 had failed to augment water supply in Tansa and Modak Sagar lakes,where the Rs 8-crore project was conducted. Although officials said not much has been done to effectively analyse the result and determine the success or failure of the experiment,there hadn’t been any notable success.

“We had been consulting the IITM during the past two months. We realised that the success or failure of such an experiment can only be deduced after repeated attempts,” said a senior civic official.

Cloud seeding is the process of spreading either dry ice or more commonly silver iodide aerosols into the upper part of clouds to stimulate the precipitation process and form rain.