Mumbai: Mumbai rains, which played truant till June end, have picked up its pace now and showers have been lashing the city over the past weekend.
According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) the quota of rain in the month of June has been covered in the last three days, moreover, an extra 20 per cent rain was recorded.
The city has so far recorded 97 per cent (491.2mm) of the average rainfall required for June – 505mm. “According to the data, the city recorded 357mm of rainfall, while the suburbs recorded 524mm of rainfall till 6 pm on Sunday evening. Which means there has been 20 per cent extra rain recorded,” said IMD official.
KS Hosalikar, deputy director general, western region, IMD, the rains will continue for the next 48 hours, with the trend continuing across Maharashtra till July 3.
“Very active monsoon conditions are being witnessed along the Mumbai coast and surrounding areas. Deep westerly winds combined with the monsoon pressure gradient is likely to help continue heavy downpour over Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, and other areas along the west coast,” he said.
On Sunday, heavy rain was recorded in the cityat 69.2mm between 8.30am and 6pm. During the same time, suburbs recorded moderate showers at 29.58mm. Meanwhile, the water level in the lakes have finally started an upward journey on Sunday by witnessing a 0.75 per cent increase.
According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the heavy rainfall in the catchment areas has brought relief for the city as the water stock increased to 6.06 per cent on Sunday morning compared to 5.31 per cent on Saturday, and 4.91 per cent on Friday morning.
The rising lake level has come as a major respite to the city which has been under 10 percent water cut since November 2018.
Ashokkumar Tawadia, Deputy Municipal Commissioner, hydraulic engineering department said due to heavy rains in the catchment area we are no longer required to use the state government’s reserve from the Bhatsa but we will use the runoff water from the river.
“We have also received good rains in the BMC owned lakes and so we are no longer demanding extra water from the state.”
Last monsoon BMC's water stock fell short of nine per cent water than required by the end of monsoon in 2018 which forced the BMC to impose a 10 per cent water cut across the city to sustain the water supply throughout the year.
Although the rains have been delayed this year, there has been a significant amount of rainfall in the past 24-48 hours in the catchment area which has caused to show a slight increase in the lake level.
