Mumbai : Mumbai could face a serious water situation if the current dry spell persists till July end. The city’s six lakes have water stocks that will last for 85 days only, and the BMC will have to resort to 5 per cent to 10 per cent water cut if it does not rain soon.
Speaking to members at the standing committee meeting at BMC headquarters, Additional Municipal Commissioner Sanjay Mukherji said, “The rainfall this year has been 22% less than that in the previous year and the water stock, too, is 33% less. However, nothing will be amiss as long as the city gets consistent rainfall over the next few days.”
The civic boy members, in turn, alleged that the shortage of water is also due to unchecked pilferage and leaks in city pipelines.
According to the Indian Meteorological Department, the city has not received rainfall as the weather system that causes rain, be it a trough or upper air circulation, is absent right now and experts do not know the reason for it. However, normal rainfall is expected to resume in 3-4 days. V.K. Rajeev, Director of IMD, said, “We do not predict rain in terms of quantity, so we cannot say how much rainfall will take place”.
