Lake levels touch 80% but no respite from 10% water cut in Mumbai | Mumbai News – Times of India

MUMBAI: Despite a delayed start to the southwest monsoon that led to drop in water stock in the lakes to below 10% in June, the current water stock in the seven lakes has touched 80%. However, the civic officials have not yet withdrawn the 10% water cut. They say that owing to the ongoing dry spell, evaporation loss is likely to occur. And, due to the lack of rain the water level in dams could drop again.

The BMC supplies around 3,800 MLD of water to Mumbai every day.
On Sunday, the total water stock in the seven lakes stood at 11.62 lakh million litre i.e., 80.23% of the required quantum. On the same date last year, the water stocks were around 13.02 lakh million litre or 90%. However, the water situation in the month of June this year was slightly grim when the total stocks had dipped below 10%. On June 27, this year, the water stocks stood at 6.97% in wake of which the BMC decided to impose a 10% cut in water supply from July 1 onwards.

Mumbai is no stranger to water cuts and for many years in the past, water cuts have been announced owing to either delayed rain or rain that began with a bang but weren’t able to fill up the lakes to full quantum. From November 2018 to July 2019 the BMC had imposed a 10% water cut when lakes had filled only up to 10.95 lakh million litre or 75.67% till the end of monsoon and civic officers felt that the stocks would not suffice the city for the rest of the year.
Civic officials from the hydraulic department said they are monitoring the situation and the water cut issue would be reviewed next week. “The BMC will monitor the developments in the catchment area lakes for another week and then decide,” said a civic official. Meanwhile the IMD has said dry spell for Mumbai is likely to continue this week. The five-day forecast by IMD issued for August 6-10 said the city may record light to moderate rainfall.