‘Heavy rain to boost lake levels’

A file picture of Tansa lake, which also supplies water to the city. Pic/Datta Kumbhar

The combined stock in the seven lakes that supply water to the city was only 17 per cent stock at 6 am on Tuesday. However, officials say the current heavy showers will help raise the lake levels. Last year on July 13, the stock was 23 per cent.

Of the seven lakes that supply water to the city, five are in Thane and Nashik District. As the rain took a long break after an early start in June, the water levels have gone down. Last year, when the city faced a 20 per cent water cut in August, the storage had been 23 per cent on July 13. In 2019, the lakes were almost half full in the second week of July.

"The water level increased due to cyclonic rain and early arrival of the monsoon, but there wasn't much rain in the past two weeks. Now as there is heavy rain, the water stock may increase within the next few days," said an officer with the hydraulic engineering department. The total water stock capacity of the seven lakes is 14.47 lakh million litres.

Also read: Relief from heavy rain for Mumbai from July 15

Stock rises by just 0.29L million litres in over 20 days

Water stock on June 21 (in million litres)
2021- 2.21 lakh
2020 - 1.48 lakh
2019 - 0.78 lakh

Water stock on July 13 (in million litres)
2021 - 2.50 lakh
2020 - 3.39 lakh
2019 - 6.53 lakh