The Upper Vaitarna lake is one of the lakes that provides water to Mumbai. (Express Archive)The seven lakes that supply drinking water to Mumbai are 98.4 per cent full as on Monday morning with 14,24,250 million litres (ML) of water, sufficient to last the city until the 2023 monsoon, according to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
The total capacity of the lakes is 14,47,363 ML. The civic body supplies 3,850 million litres of water daily against the city’s demand for almost 4,400 million litres.
The seven lakes that supply drinking water to Mumbai are Upper Vaitarna, Modak Sagar, Tansa, Middle Vaitarna, Bhatsa, Vehar, and Tulsi, located either in Sanjay Gandhi National Park in the city or in neighbouring districts of Thane and Palghar.
The catchment area of the seven lakes received a total of 1,237 mm cumulative rainfall between September 7 and September 12 — the days on which the Mumbai Metropolitan region saw heavy rainfall. The most rainfall (468 mm) of the last five days was received in the 24 hours between September 8 and September 9, followed by the 24 hours between September 7 and 8 at 382 mm. In the past 24 hours, the lakes received 49 mm of rainfall.
On September 12 last year, the lakes were 96.6 per cent full with 13,98,608 ML water stock and in 2020 they were 98.14 percent full with 14,20,457 ML water stock.
On Monday morning, three of the seven lakes — Modak Sagar, Vehar and Tulsi — had 100 per cent water stock.
Modak Sagar lake had first started overflowing on July 13 followed by Tulsi on July 16 and Vehar on August 11. Tansa lake had started overflowing on July 14 and presently is 99.34 per cent full with 1,44,122 ML water stock.
Bhatsa dam in Thane, which supplies 55 per cent of the total annual water requirement of the city, is 98.51 per cent full with 7,06,337 ML water stock against a capacity of 7,17,037 ML. The BMC closed all gates of the Bhatsa dam on September 11.