Overflowing Tulsi lake fails to meet BMC's water storage needs

Tulsi Lake at Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Pic/Nimesh Dave

The only good thing about Monday's downpour was an overflowing Tulsi lake, but Mumbaikars need not be too excited about it. The water stored by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in the catchment areas of city's lakes has just reached 38 per cent of the total required stock of 14.47 lakh million litres. Last year, by this time, the civic body had stored almost half of the total quantity. Though Mumbai has started receiving good amounts of rain, the civic officials still have a long way to go in saving up for the city's water requirements.

According to sources, two lakes located within the city's jurisdiction - Tulsi and Vihar - contribute only 2 per cent of the water supply, whereas the state government-owned Bhatsa dam supplies 39.5 per cent (5.75 million litres) of the total requirement. However, with only 2.11 million litres of water stored, the dam has not even reached the half mark.

The other four lakes - Modak Sagar, Tansa, Upper Vaitarna and Middle Vaitarna - collectively known as the Vaitarna system, contributes largely to city's water requirements. Civic officials said that the catchment areas of these rivers in Thane and Palghar districts have started receiving good rainfall after an almost dry June and they expect the levels to improve soon.

The officials further said that last year by August most of the lakes had started overflowing and BMC had managed to store water for a year. This year too they said the lakes would reach their capacity soon, as Palghar and Thane regions have started receiving heavy rainfall.

Speaking to mid-day, a civic official said, "The water stock is increasing as we are receiving good rainfall. Modak Sagar has almost reached 80 per cent of its full capacity and even Tansa has crossed the half mark. And we still have two months of monsoon to store water."

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