Light showers offer little relief to parched city

 

Mumbai: The city witnessed light showers on Sunday but catchment areas remain dry. After the initial spell of rain on Tuesday, when Upper Vaitarna received about 45mm of rainfall, dry days followed.
    According to officials, there is nothing to worry about at the moment. “Last year, there was inadequate rainfall across the city because of which the six lakes that supply water to the city did not fill up. Because of this, Mumbaikars were forced to face an unprecedented water crisis,’’ said a senior civic hydraulic officer. Currently, the city is reeling under a 15% water cut for residential users and a 30% cut on commercial units, which is not likely to be lifted before July 15.
    As a result of poor rainfall last year, the lakes did not fill up to the brim. The water stock by the end of October last year was just about 10 lakh litres as against the requirement of 12 lakh litres for the city to be able to sail smoothly throughout the year. Currently, the levels of Upper Vaitarna and Vihar have dipped below the lowest drawable level and supply from Vihar has been discontinued.
    While catchment areas did not receive rain on Sunday, light showers were reported around Modak Sagar and Bhatsa on Saturday. The former received 1.6mm of rainfall, the latter about 8.20mm rainfall.
    Currently, the city gets only 2,900 million litres (MLD) of water per day as opposed to the requirement of a regular supply of 3,450 MLD. The water is supplied by six lakes including Tulsi, Vihar, Tansa, Bhatsa, Modak Sagar and Upper Vaitarna. The current total stock of water in all the six lakes is around one lakh litres. Around the same time last year, the stock was more than double of what it is now.
    However, BMC officials maintain that the city has adequate stock of water to last until July 15.