Mumbai: Heavy rains lashed Mumbai and surrounding areas over the last few days, as a result of which Powai lake in the eastern suburbs started overflowing on Saturday afternoon, an official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said. The water from the lake, which has a storage capacity of 545 crore litres, is used for industrial purposes and flows into Mithi river.
According to the BMC, the lake had last overflowed on July 5, 2020, during last year’s monsoon season. “Powai lake started overflowing at 3pm today. This year the lake has started filling up and overflowing about 24 days earlier than last year,” the BMC said. When the lake is full, the water area is around 2.23 sq km, while the catchment area is 6.61 sq km, it stated.
Mumbai has been receiving heavy rainfall since the last few days, and the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for the city on Sunday and orange alert for June 14 (Monday). After the IMD’s forecast, the BMC also issued a “high alert” to all the agencies considering “very heavy rainfall” in the next two days. Seven reservoirs Bhatsa, Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, Tansa, Modak Sagar, Vihar and Tulsi supply 385 crore litres of water to the megapolis.
(With inputs from agencies)