'Lake levels will rise only if it continues to pour'

Representational picture

Monsoon has officially arrived in the city, but wait, it's not yet time to shrug off our water supply concerns. Officials from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) are of the opinion that water levels in the city's lakes would show a rising trend from this weekend, provided it continues to rain. While on the first day of monsoon, the Tulsi and Vihar Lakes received 43 mm and 90 mm of rain, respectively, the other major water supplying lakes - Upper Vaitarna and Bhatsa - received 110 mm and 125 mm of rainfall till Friday morning.

Also Read: Water stock in Mumbai dips to 6.1 per cent, Vaitarna at zero level

Water department officials said the water stock in the live storage had gone down to 71,017 million litres, but an additional reserve stock from Bhatsa was keeping the city afloat without additional water cuts. The officials further said that as Tulsi and Vihar supplied water to a very small part of the city, the other lakes needed to be filled up fast. Some of the other major lakes of the city - Modak Sagar, Middle Vaitarna and Tansa - received 39 mm, 55 mm and 41 mm of rain, respectively. The average rainfall needed during monsoon to meet the city's annual water supply was over 2,000 mm, added the officials.

Also Read: Mumbai lakes have the lowest water levels in the last 3 years

They further said that even the catchment areas of the reservoirs received good amounts of rainfall on Friday. A senior civic official added, "Once the rains hit the reservoirs, the daily evaporation losses come down. With the percolation period decreasing, the daily difference that used to be 2,500 million litres came down to 500 million litres on Friday. This is a sign that the water levels will start rising." Speaking to mid-day, Ashok Tawadia, chief engineer of hydraulic engineering department, said, "Monsoon has arrived and our catchment areas have started receiving rain."

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