Two out of the seven lakes of Mumbai, which provide a major portion of the water supplied to Mumbai, are nearly full and on the brink of overflowing.
Two out of the seven lakes of Mumbai, which provide a major portion of the water supplied to Mumbai, are nearly full and on the brink of overflowing. The Upper Vaitarna and the Bhatsa lakes, which supply over 60 per cent of the water to Mumbai, have an average of 90 per cent useful content. As the total water available in the seven lakes is about 13,35,014 million litres (ML), which is just a little short of the water content needed by the end of September (14.44 ML) for the city to have a water cut free year ahead, the civic body has expressed satisfaction with the rainfall in catchment areas this monsoon.
A civic official of the hydraulics department said, “We are in a very good position this year, with one more month of the monsoon season left. While we have completely ruled out water cut for the coming year, we are hopeful that we will touch 14.44 ML by the end of next month.”
While the full supply level of Upper Vaitarna is 603.51m, the lake currently has water up to 603.4 m. Similarly, the full supply level of the Bhatsa lake is 142.07m, the lake levels have presently touched 138.64m. The total useful content, which means the amount of water that can be supplied to the city, in all the seven lakes stands at 92.24 per cent.
The civic official quoted above also pointed out that the lake levels were higher this year as the catchment areas have received twice the amount of rainfall it did last year. He said, “While the rainfall in the catchment area last year was recorded at a little over 1,500mm, this year all lakes have received over 2,200mm of rainfall, on an average.”
