Rain in Mumbai, yet lake water stocks low

MUMBAI/PUNE: Rain activity was recorded in the island city and the adjoining areas such as Thane all through Wednesday.
Mumbai suburbs, by comparison, recorded meagre rain activity. In the 12 hours ended 8.30pm on Wednesday, the IMD’s Colaba observatory recorded 38.8mm of rainfall and Santacruz 8.7mm. IMD officials said an orange alert was already in place for Wednesday, indicating heavy to very heavy rain at isolated places.
Weather officials said a low pressure area lies over coastal Kutch and its neighbourhood and an offshore trough at mean sea level lies off the Karnataka and Kerala coasts.
Under the influence of these conditions, fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall is “very likely” along the west coast and the adjoining inland areas over the next three days.
Meanwhile, BMC officials said while low water stock in the lakes is a concern, they are monitoring the situation.
As on Wednesday, the total water stock in the seven lakes supplying water to the city stood at 2.5 lakh million litre or 17.35% of the total requirement. Last year, the total stock on the same date were around 3.5 lakh million litre, which was higher at 23.9% of the required water stocks. In the year 2019, the total water stock in the lakes stood at 47%.
Ajay Rathod, chief engineer of BMC’s hydraulic department, said, “The IMD has predicted rainfall for the coming days and we are observing the situation for now.”
The city had experienced a 20% water cut in August 2020 amidst the Covid-19 outbreak due to low level of water storage in the lakes.
(With inputs from Neha Madaan)