Lakes still waiting for skies to open up

Tansa lake in Thane district. File pic

Mumbai may have had spells of heavy rain in the past few days, but the catchment areas of the seven lakes that supply water to the city are yet to see similar showers. As a result, the total water stock in the water bodies was just 17 per cent on Thursday. Around this time last year, the stock was about 24 per cent, while it was 48 per cent the year before.

July and August are considered the months of heavy rainfall, though the scene has been different so far this year. The storage capacity of all the lakes is 14.47 lakh million litres of water, though the total stock now is 2.5 lakh million litres.

Last year, the lakes had 3.61 lakh million litres of water on July 15 and the city had to face a 20 per cent water cut mid-monsoon due to inadequate rainfall. In 2019, the lakes were almost half-filled by mid-July after a slow start of the monsoon.

This year, the monsoon picked pace early, leading to the Powai lake, which provides industrial water, overflowing on June 12, three weeks earlier than last year. But it then took a break which meant that the seven big reservoirs would have to wait longer to see their stocks rising.

In the past two to three days, Mumbai has been receiving good rainfall. While Vihar and Tulsi, which are within the city limits, recorded 32 mm and 62 mm rain respectively, the other five at the borders of Thane and Nashik districts received less than 10 mm rain.

"We are monitoring the situation. IMD has predicted satisfactory rainfall in July so we are hopeful that the lake levels will improve in the coming weeks," said an official from BMC's hydraulic department.

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