The city may have started receiving heavy rainfall in the last couple of days, but there are no signs that the prevailing water cuts would be lifted soon as substantial spells have continued to elude
The city may have started receiving heavy rainfall in the last couple of days, but there are no signs that the prevailing water cuts would be lifted soon as substantial spells have continued to elude the lake catchments areas. Barring Vihar and Tulsi lakes, rainfall has been scant in other major lakes in neighbouring Thane district.
The city gets water supply from seven lakes — Modak Sagar, Tansa, Vihar, Tulsi, Upper Vaitarana, Bhatsa and Middle Vaitarana. Of them, Vihar and Tulsi fall in city precinct, whereas the other five are in the neighbouring Thane district.
According to civic officials, since the beginning of monsoon, Vihar and Tulsi have received 285 mm and 274 mm of rainfall, respectively. This is in stark contrast to the poor rainfall in catchment areas of other lakes. Modak Sagar and Bhatsa have received only 65 mm and 55 mm of rainfall so far. The other lakes Tansa (8 mm), Upper Vaitarana (8 mm) and Middle Vaitarana (15 mm) have barely received any rainfall.
The useful content in city lakes is only 92,647 million litres (ml), much less as compared to last year’s stock of 2.67 lakh ml at this time of the year.
“Lakes in Thane district are the major source of water supply. These lakes need to be filled to their capacity, for the city to avoid water cuts in summer. We are expecting that the monsoon, which has arrived in the city, will soon move upwards towards the Thane district,” said a civic official.
The full supply level of Modak Sagar lake is 163.15m and of Tansa is 128.63m, Vihar 80.12m, Tulsi 139.17m, Upper Vaitarana 603.51m, Bhatsa 142.07m and Middle Vaitarana 285m.
