Despite depleting water levels in the seven lakes, there are no plans to impose any water cuts in Mumbai, assured the civic official on Tuesday. The total water stock of 31% available for the city is currently the lowest compared to the previous two years.
However, the state government has permitted BMC to utilise a reserve stock of 1.98 lakh million litres from the Upper Vaitarna and Bhatsa lakes. This water stock is sufficient to quench the thirst of the city till the arrival of the monsoon, claimed the civic official.
A high power committee of civic officials took a review of water stock in a meeting held in the BMC headquarters on Tuesday. As of March 26, the lakes have a total of 4.62 lakh million litres (ML) of water stock, while in 2023 it was 5.57 lakhs ML and 6.01 lakh ML in 2022. The BMC had earlier proposed a 10% water cut in view of dwindling levels of lakes caused by low rainfall during the last year of the monsoon.
"The current stock is sufficient to supply water for the next two months. However, the state government has agreed to make available from its reserve stock, which we can utilise till July. So, currently there is no proposal to impose any water cuts in the city," said a senior civic official.
The city will get 92,000 ML of water stock from Upper Vaitarna and 1.06 lakh ML from Bhatsa lake. Last year too, the BMC utilised some of the reserve water stock from Upper Vaitarna lake till the catchment areas of other lakes received heavy rainfall in July. Meanwhile, the city is facing a 5% water cut from March 15 till April 24, due to ongoing maintenance work at the water filtration plant at Bhandup.
The seven lakes supply 3,900 million litres of water daily to the city. The city requires 14.47 lakh ML of water stock in the seven lakes on October 1, which is sufficient for the whole year.
