Mumbai, the financial capital of India is down for many reasons. Due to the impact of the pandemic, it is already feeling short of health facilities. Various regions of the city are in containment and life in Mumbai has come to a standstill. Now, the city is facing another issue and that is a shortage of water!
Yes, it is true! Mumbai gets its entire water supply from the seven lakes and dams. These dams and lakes are Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, Modak Sagar, Tansa, Bhatsa, Vihar, and Tulsi. This year, Mumbai hasn’t received good rainfall yet. Due to this, the stock of water in these water bodies is at a low level.
What is the usual scenario of Water Level in these water bodies?
The amount of water is so much low that if there isn’t much rain, the water will last only for 42 days! Although, it was raining heavily last week in Mumbai. But, the stock of water has not increased much despite only 7 days left in June. At present, the stock of water is 10.68% of total capacity.
Last year, at the same time, all these water bodies collectively were having 5.72% of the total water storage capacity. However, in 2018 the water level of all these water bodies was 13.09% during this time. The main reason for this could be the 10% water cut by BMC at that time.
BMC’s take on this
However, BMC is telling people not to panic during these circumstances. On this, Additional Municipal Commissioner, P Velrasu says,
This year, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted normal rainfall in Mumbai. So far the rainfall in Upper Vaitarna and Middle Vaitarna and some other dams are better than last year. The water levels in these dams are also higher than last year. So there is nothing to worry about the availability of water as of now.
Let’s hope we get good rains quickly and get sufficient stock of water.
