Mumbai Rains: Lakes get a full month’s water stock in two days

The Tulsi lake overflowed last week

The lakes providing water to the city finally received water over the past two days of torrential rain and collected enough water for a month's supply. The water level went up from 18 per cent to 29 per cent.

Mumbai has been receiving good rainfall for the past week, but the long break of monsoon where the lakes are located was a concern. The seven lakes had a combined water stock of just 2.87 lakh million litres (ML) against the total capacity of 14.47 lakh ML (29 per cent). As of 6 am on Monday, the stock increased by 1.28 lakh ML due to the heavy to very heavy rain, especially outside the city limits. The city receives 3,800 ML water every day.

Tulsi and Vihar, the lakes in the city with a combined capacity of around 2 per cent of the total capacity, overflowed last week. The five other lakes - Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, Modak Sagar, Tansa and Bhatsa - on the border of Thane and Nashik districts, did not receive more than 20 mm rain on any given day in the past two weeks. But the heavy to very heavy rain led to significant gains on Saturday and Sunday, with Middle Vaitarna receiving more than 300 mm rain on a single day.

The combined water stock of all lakes is also more than what it was this time last year. There was 3.91 lakh ML water on July 19, 2020, and 7.43 lakh ML water on July 19, 2019.

Also read: ‘Govt threw us here and forgot all about us': Fed-up Mahul residents want permanent relief

Repairs at Bhandup plant done, water supply to city resumes

With repair work at the Bhandup Water Treatment Plant complete, water supply resumed in the city on Monday. The filtration and pumping plants as well as the power supply had shut down after the centre got flooded on Sunday. It affected the water supply in most parts of the city. The civic body had appealed to citizens to drink boiled water. "The repairing has been completed and water supply has been restored," said a civic official. "This is the first time that the water supply got disrupted due to flooding. It didn't happen even in July 2005. The corporation should look into the issue," BJP MLA Ashish Shelar said.