Mumbai soaked but catchment area still dry

Tansa lake in Thane district. File pic

Despite heavy rain in the city for two days, the catchment area barely received any. Except for Tulsi lake all six other lakes received 10 mm or less rain in the last 24 hours. The combined stock increased by 17,000 litres but that is due to the percolation effect.

Tulsi is the smallest of the seven lakes supplying water to Mumbai, with a capacity of 8,046 million litres. The city's daily water requirement is approximately 4,500 to 4,900 million litres, meaning Tulsi could be drained in just two days if it supplied the entire city.

In the 24 hours leading up to Wednesday at 6 am, Tulsi received 46 mm of rainfall, increasing its stock from 4,379 million litres on Tuesday to 4,488 million litres on Wednesday. However, the other lakes received 10 mm of rainfall or less.

The combined water stock of all lakes rose by 17,000 litres in a day, reaching 313,000 million litres. This increase was due to percolation following heavy rain on Sunday and Monday. Despite this rise, the current stock is only 21.7 per cent of capacity, lower than in the past two years. As a result, a 10 per cent water cut will continue for the next few days.