No water cuts in Mumbai next year as stock in lakes close to 100%

MUMBAI: The city is unlikely to see any water cuts in the coming year, as total stock in the lakes that supply it with drinking water is nearing the 100% mark.
BMC records show that the seven lakes need 14.47 lakh million litres of water to reach full supply level. Till Monday, the total water stock stood at 14.24 lakh million litres. On Monday morning, three of the seven lakes had 100% stock. These were Modak Sagar, Vihar and Tulsi.
On July 5, Powai lake in the eastern suburbs, a store of water that is supplied to industries, overflowed. Thereafter, four lakes, namely, Modak Sagar, Tansa, Tulsi and Vihar, overflowed.
Modak Sagar lake started overflowing on July 13, Tulsi on July 16, and Vihar on August 11. Tansa started overflowing on July 14 and now it is at 99.34% of its capacity.
At the beginning of the rains the civic body had to impose a 10% water cut when the total stock in the seven lakes dropped below 10%. Now with the IMD forecast for significant rain activity in the coming days, it is likely that all lakes will reach the 100% mark by the weekend.
The IMD issued a yellow alert, indicating heavy rainfall at isolated places, for the city, Thane and Palghar from September 13 to 15. The city and its vicinity have already seen significant thunder and rain activity since last week. The IMD Colaba observatory recorded 55.6mm of rain in the 24 hours ending at 8.30am on Monday.
Last year on the same date, the total water stock in the lakes stood at 13.98 lakh million litres, or at 96.63%.
The maximum water supply, 48%, comes from Bhatsa, while Tulsi and Vihar provide around 1% to 2% of the requirement. Middle Vaitarna provides around 12%, Modak Sagar 11%, Tansa 10% and Upper Vaitarna 16%.
The BMC supplies 3,850 million litres of water to the city every day.
"We will take a review of the water situation in the lakes at the end of the month," an official said.