Water levels double in lakes, but way short to ensure year-round supply for Mumbai

The usable water content of the newly constructed Middle Vaitarna dam too, which was commissioned for water supply to the city earlier this year, has also risen from level ‘zero’ to 33,005 million litres. Across the six lakes, Modak Sagar, Tansa, Vehar, Tulsi, Bhatsa and Upper Vaitarna, the total usable water level has risen to 2,96,714 million litres, which is double the amount recorded last week.

Still, there is an evident gap from last year’s total usable content level of 10,61,884 million litres recorded till date. Moreover, the levels remain critically short of the 12.5 lakh million litre mark necessary to ensure a year-round supply for Mumbai.

As the catchment areas received scant rainfall in June, water levels of lakes dipped critically low, forcing the BMC to impose a 20 per cent water cut on supply to all parts of Mumbai. A further cut of 50 per cent has been in force for commercial establishments such as malls, hotels and industrial areas, while there is a complete ban on water supply to swimming pools.

The poor rainfall led the BMC to consider shelling out Rs 15 crore on cloud-seeding, a procedure that involves injecting clouds with precipitation material to induce rain although the method proved to be unsuccessful in 2009. While the corporation floated a tender to appoint a company for the procedure in June, it is yet to finalise the contractor and the date for a scheduled sortie to carry out the work. The administration said it was in consultation with the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, to seek assistance with the technical aspects of the procedure.

“Cloud seeding requires technical expertise that we don’t have. IITM will provide us information regarding the planes, radar and other equipment
required during the process. The procedure has drawn flak in the past, which is why we want to be clear about the details before we give the final confirmation on the tenders. We hope to start the procedure as soon as possible,” a senior official of the civic water supply department said.

Till Wednesday, Vehar and Tulsi lakes had received more than 1,000 mm  rainfall this season, while the other four received between 300 and 900 mm rainfall.

At present, the Bhatsa lake, accounting for more than 50 per cent of the city’s water supply, has the highest usable water content at 118,080 million litres.

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