With 75% dams full, BMC to review city’s water cut by August-end

 Lakes were 93.69% full by this time last year. BMC keeps its fingers crossed

@hepzia

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will review its 20% water cut after reviewing its water stocks in August-end. The water cut could either be completely rolled back or its proportion reduced marginally after due assessments. Following incessant rains in the past weeks, the seven lakes providing water to Mumbai have filled over 75.96% of water. The BMC says the water stocks are less compared to the 93.69% of water availability by this time in 2019 and 89.79% of water in 2018.

While the Tulsi and Vihar lakes have overflowed, lakes like Upper Vaitarna, which is only 59% filled and Bhatsa which is just 74% filled so far are a matter of concern.

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Speaking to thenews21, additional municipal commissioner P. Velrasu said that water stocks continued to be a concern since there is just a month and a half of rainfall left to replenish water stocks now. The city has 20% water cut now due to low rainfall in the catchment areas.

He adds further “When we reach 90% of water storage capacity, then we can either consider a roll back or reduce the proportion of water cut. A decision will be taken after checking the duration for which our water stocks could last. The water stocks should be good enough to last us through till June next year, calculated with a daily requirement of 3800 million liters per day (MLD). This is so because even if rains start by the beginning of June next year, the lakes start filling only by June-end.”

As of now, 75% of the city water is used for residential use, 15% for commercial use and only 2% is used for industrial purposes. This does not include the 30% of water that is wasted during transfer from dams to the delivery point due to theft, leakages, illegal water connections and transmission losses. The city’s water needs are expected to be boosted by the addition of two more dams that should get functional in a few years’ time from now.

While the Pinjal dam being built by Maharashtra’s irrigation department should be ready in six years, the Gargi dam, built by the BMC should be functional in about four years’ time. “The city is short of about 500 MLD of its water needs, as per our calculation on the higher side. The requirement is expected to rise in a decade by which time the two additional dam projects should be ready. Also we expect about six large water treatment plants to be functional in a few years’ time, that will help recycle and reuse water,’ said Velrasu.