BMC's 'fingers crossed' with only 55 days of water stock remaining

The arrival of the monsoon has everyone's attention, including the BMC. The civic body is hoping for early rains so that the city's seven lakes can be replenished and continue to supply water to Mumbai for another year. On Tuesday, these lakes had a total stock of 2,12,461 million litres, or 14.68 percent of their total capacity of 14,47,363 lakh million litres. According to BMC officials, the current water stock will last for 55 days, so the city should not be concerned. By June 11, the monsoon is expected to arrive.

 

Because of last year's good rains, the current stock is higher than it was on this day in 2021 when it was 12.84 percent. "All seven lakes that supply water to the city were full due to heavy rains during the last monsoon. The monsoon is expected to begin soon, so we are crossing our fingers "a civic official from the hydraulic department stated

 

The BMC provides 3,850 million litres of water to residents every day by drawing from the lakes of Modak Sagar, Tansa, Vihar, Tulsi, Upper Vaitarna, Bhatsa, and Middle Vaitarna. In recent years, the civic body has begun looking for additional water sources, conducting experiments such as rainwater harvesting, borewell digging, desalination, and so on.

 

However, rain has always been the city's primary source of water. Every year on October 1, the BMC measures the water level in the lakes. Mumbai faced water shortages in August 2020 due to low levels in lake catchment areas due to a lack of rainfall. Due to good rains, no water cut was imposed in 2019, whereas the BMC imposed a 10% water cut in 2018, a 20% cut in 2016, and a 25% cut in 2014.