Although the rains have boosted lake levels to a certain extent, the BMC has moved ahead with its plan of 10 per cent water cut, which came into effect on Saturday. The restriction will continue till the stock in lakes reach sufficiently high levels, said civic officials.
Owing to the delayed arrival of monsoon and dipping stock in lakes, the civic body had previously mulled imposing the water cut. On June 26, lake levels dipped to an abysmal low of 93,000 million litres (ML) while the city requires 14.47 lakh ML for a year's supply. Heavy rainfall in the last week increased the stock by 92,000 ML and the current collective level of lakes stands at 1.85 lakh ML which equals 39 days of supply.
Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects) P Velrasu said, “We had planned water cuts for the whole year. The water cut will continue till the stocks in lakes reach sufficiently high levels.” The BMC is working on alternate sources of water, such as the desalination plant, sewage treatment plants (for non-potable purposes) and converting effluent into potable water, but these projects will take shape in at least 3-4 years. So, the civic authority has decided to save water by implementing cuts.
The BMC has reserve stock from Upper Vaitarna (40,490 ML) and Bhatsa (75,000 ML) lakes approved by the state government.
BMC water stock on June 26 - 93,972
July 1 - 1,85,972
Year - current stock
2023- 1,85,072
2022 - 15,773
2021 - 2,64,616
Lakes - current useful content
Upper Vaitarna - reserve stock - 40,490
Modak Sagar - 46,314
Tansa - 51,529
Middle Vaitarna - 32,921
Bhatsa - 41,926
Vihar - 9,689
Tulsi - 3,594
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