Dry days here again? BMC to propose 10% water cut across city

MUMBAI: With stock in the seven lakes that supply potable water to Mumbai at 76% as compared to 92% in November last year, the BMC administration has proposed a 10% water cut for the city.

The proposal will be tabled before the BMC's standing committee for approval on Wednesday. Once it is okayed, the cut will come into effect immediately, senior civic officials said.




TOI was the first to report on October 23 that the municipal corporation may decide to ration water supply after Diwali. It also wrote about how supply in various areas across the city has been erratic for over a month, with complaints of low-pressure or zero supply coming in from Cuffe Parade, Fort, Nagpada, Dongri, Bandra, Juhu and Andheri. Some corporators had alleged an unofficial cut was already in place.

Stock in the lakes on Tuesday was at 11 lakh million litres, over 2 lakh million litres less or 16% less than on the same day last year (13.2 lakh million litres). The shortfall is due to poor rainfall in August and September, though June and July had seen a good amount of rain.

About the proposed cut, a civic official said, "The 10% cut would be uniform for the entire city, including commercial and residential structures. If we don't reduce supply, we may have to dip into the reserves in the lakes." The city has been getting a total of 3,800 million litres from the seven lakes every day this season.

The last time a water cut was imposed was in 2015, when scanty rainfall led to a 20% cut from September. It lasted a year. This time the levels are lowest since 2016, where again there was 89% stock in November.

Goregoan resident Amrita Ganguly said that supply in her building, Swastik Vaibhav, and the rest of the society with 60 flats has been poor for a month. "I have a 9-month-old infant and insufficient water is causing us huge problems. The situation has not improved despite us having complained," she said.

Cuffe Parade corporator Harshita Narwekar said buildings in the area have already been calling for tankers. "We feel, on the ground, that we have already been facing a water cut. We dread what the situation would be like if a cut is announced officially," she said.

Bandra corporator Asif Zakeria, meanwhile, pointed out that under the BMC's water distribution improvement project (WDIP) programme, areas in his locality were to get less pressure but the supply was to be for longer hours. "However, though the authorities are not officially admitting it, this is likely to have been withdrawn as well. Besides, many areas on the edge of Bandra, like Khadeshwari, are suffering because of low-pressure water," he said.