Recent heavy showers have dispelled the city's fear of a water crisis in 2024. The cumulative level of the seven lakes, which quench Mumbai's thirst, now stands at 98.93%, which will be sufficient till arrival of the next monsoon, said a civic official of water department.
The adequate stock is a boon given the late monsoon arrival and August's dry spell. Fear was looming large that the city is headed towards water woes. The lakes should have a total stock of 14.47 lakh million litres (ML) on October 1 to tide over a year. Currently, the seven water bodies have a cumulative 14.31 lakh ML reserve.
This year, the monsoon arrived almost two weeks later than its normal onset date of June 11. The BMC had to even impose a 10% water cut from July 1 owing to the depleting stock. The water cut was withdrawn on August 9 after heavy showers filled Modak Sagar, Tansa, Vihar and Tulsi lakes, but driest August again fuelled speculations of water crisis.
“With just 70% of water stock in the lakes we were worried in August. We had also planned for imposing cut again in September. Fortunately, the catchment area of lakes received intermittent showers in the last two weeks, which led to the increase of the lake levels,” said a senior civic official.
Stock in million litres (ML); capacity filled
Upper Vaitarna
2,26,083; 99.58%
Tansa
1,43,887; 99%
Middle Vaitarna
1,89,031; 97.68%
Bhatsa
7,08,258; 98.78%
Overflowing lakes
Modak Sagar, Vihar, Tulsi
