The other days upto September 18 Thane and Palghar have been placed under yellow alert. Mumbai has been kept under a yellow alert of all days till early next week and IMD authorities said that if required warnings will be upgraded.
On Thursday too, some parts of the city and adjoining areas like Thane and Navi Mumbai witnessed isolated heavy rain spells however the weather bureau said that as the weekend approaches the intensity of rainfall is likely to increase.
An IMD officer over the alerts issued for the next few days said that there is a well marked Low Pressure Area over Northwest Bay of Bengal and adjoining North Odisha-West Bengal coasts. “This system is likely to move across Odisha and Chhattisgarh during the next 2 days.. Current models are indicating that unlike the wet spell which the city witnessed in the first week of September this time the rains are likely to be more intense,” said the official adding that the weather bureau will upgrade the alerts if needed as the system moves closer.
Meanwhile bringing cheer to the city, the water stocks in the seven lakes supplying to the city has already touched 97% as on September 14 and weathermen have said that catchment areas are likely to get even more rains in the coming days.
With the lakes nearing 100% capacity, concerns about water shortages in the city are expected to be alleviated. “The water stocks in the lakes will fill up to full capacity over the next few days. However we are closely observing whether like the previous rain spell this time too the adjoining areas of Mumbai like Vasai, Virar, Palghar are going to receive more rains than the city areas,” added the official.
As of September 14, the total water stocks in the seven lakes was 14.08 lakh million litres which was slightly lower than last year’s levels on the same date when the total water stocks stood at 14.28 lakh million litres. The lakes need to have 14.47 lakh million litres of water in them till October 1 for the city to go without any water cuts for the rest of the years.
