Mumbai: Reserve water saves city from severe shortage

BMC has taken permission from the state government to use the reserved stock of water from Upper Vaitarna Lake. File pic

If there were no reserves, the lake levels would have dropped to their lowest point within the next three days. The BMC began drawing water from the reserve stock in the first week of June after the actual water stock shrank to just 6 per cent. Although the actual stock has remained nearly the same, the BMC has been drawing equivalent amounts of water from the reserve.

The total storage capacity of all seven lakes supplying water to the city is 14,47,363 million litres. The BMC has 76,602 million litres (5.3 per cent) of it on Tuesday, June 25. The BMC had taken prior permission from the state government to use the reserved stock of water from Bhatsa and Upper Vaitarna lakes. The corporation started fetching water from the reserve of Upper Vaitarna on June 3 when the lake level went below the lowest drawable level and subsequently started using the reserve stock of Bhatsa from June 11.

Till June 25, the BMC used 65,699 million litres of water from both reserves. The city needs approximately 4500 million litres of water every day (supply including leakages, evaporation, unmetered water etc). That means, if there wasn't a reserved stock, the lake levels would have reached 0.75 per cent on Tuesday and subsequently to rock bottom by Thursday.

"Currently we are getting water from the ‘buffer or dead storage' of the lakes, which is below the lowest drawable level. There are special sluices to fetch water at this level," said an official from the BMC. The BMC received permission to use 1,37,000 ml water from Bhatsa and 91,130 ml water from Upper Vaitarna which may last till July end. The civic body fetched 43,029 million litres of water from Upper Vaitarna and 22,670 million litres of water from Bhatsa till 6 am on Tuesday, June 25.

The BMC imposed 5 per cent water cut from May 30 and 10 per cent cut from June 10 when the lake stock reached below 7 per cent. Though there are a few splashes of rain in and around the lake area, those are not enough to raise the water level. "There is hardly any rain. The heavy rain for a week is required to increase the water level. But currently, we are depending upon the water collected in the last rainy season," said an official from the BMC.

Important water numbers

Total capacity of water storage
14,47,363 million litres

Stock on June 25
76,602 million litres (5.3 per cent)

Water used from reserve
65,699 million litres

Daily requirement - around
4,500 million litres