Requests State’s irrigation dept to release water for Mumbai from Bhatsa and Upper Vaitarna dams
Mumbai : It’s sad, but it is true. Though much was made out of the torrential rain that the State received during the Ganpati festival, it was just not enough to fill the lakes of the dams that supply water to the Mumbai.
Subsequently, to overcome the water crisis situation, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) wrote a letter to the state government’s irrigation department to allow the BMC to lift water from the state’s Bhatsa and Upper Vaitarna Dam.
The monsoon is about to end and there is no sufficient water stock in the BMC’s lakes. In recent times, there was good rainfall in the catchment areas of BMC’s five lakes but it could not increase the water stock up to the required level. Due to the rain in the last two days, the water levels in the lakes increased only by 1, 50,000 million liters. Currently there is only 11, 56, 476 million liters of water available in the lakes for Mumbai.
Mumbai needs more water to suffice for the remaining parts of the year. The requirement of water would be only fulfilled if the BMC gets water from the state government’s Bhatsa and Upper Vaitarana dams. The BMC has a lake on the dam, but the ownership of the dam is with state government’s irrigation department. BMC’s water department wrote a letter to the state’s irrigation department to hold a joint meeting on the issue to discuss the issue.
The BMC also explained Mumbai’s current water situation and how the BMC needs more water from Bhatsa and Upper Vaitarna Dam.
According to the review taken by the BMC, Mumbai needs 305 days of water till the arrival of the next monsoon. The water stock in Upper Vaitarna will suffice 259 days while Bhatsa has 227 days of water stock.
“The BMC need 2100 million liters of water per day from Upper Vaitarna and Bhatsa, the city will get enough supply. Otherwise the cut will continue till next monsoon,” said an official from the BMC’s hydraulic department.
“If the government allows the BMC to lift water from these two dams, the city will get some respite,” the officials said.
Pandurang Mhaske
