The heavy rainfall has brought some sigh of relief for Mumbaikars as the five out of seven reservoirs supplying drinking water to Mumbai city has reached its full capacities. On the wee hours of Sunday, the Middle Vaitarna reservoir located in the neighbouring Palghar district started overflowing. Earlier this monsoon, Tulsi, Vihar, Modak Sagar and Tansa reached its full capacities. The water storage including all seven reservoirs have crossed 89 percent.
“The Hinduhridaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Middle Vaitarna Reservoir, a key water supplier for Mumbai, started overflowing at 2:45 am today, 4th August 2024. Two gates of the dam have been opened by 10 centimeters, with water being discharged at a rate of 706.30 cusecs,” informed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
Since the catchment areas are receiving moderate to heave rainfall from last few days, the water storage started rising considerably. On August 2, the total water storage in all seven reservoirs had reached 80 percent of water collected. However, following incessant rains, the water storage reached 89.10 percent in two days with 12,89,615 million litres of total water stored. On the same day last year, total water stored in all seven lakes was 79.25 percent, says BMC’s Hydraulic Engineering data.
The seven reservoirs supplying drinking water to Mumbai are- Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, Tansa, Modak Sagar, Tulsi, Vihar and Bhatsa. As per BMC’s Hydraulic Engineering department’s report on Sunday morning, of the seven Upper Vaitarna which holds 1650 million litres of water has reached only 66 percent capacity, while Bhatsa which holds total 2069 million litres of water has reached to 89 percent.
The catchment areas are required to receive sufficient rainfall in the remaining days of monsoon to overflow to avoid any water cuts for Mumbai city.
