Heavy rains bring relief to Mumbai as Modak Sagar lake overflows, mitigate city's water woes

In a major relief to Mumbai, Modak Sagar, one of the lakes quenching the city’s thirst, overflowed on Saturday, thanks to heavy rains, providing huge relief to Mumbaikars. [caption id=“attachment_3816745” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] The second largest of the lakes supplying water to the metropolitan city, which supplies 440 million litres of water to Mumbai daily, overflowed at 6:32 am on Saturday, taking the water stock to 899,388 million litres, Hindustan Times reported. A report in The Times of India states that seven catchment area lakes supply the city’s daily water requirement, which is 3,750 million litres. The other six lakes which supply water to Mumbai are Tulsi, Vihar, Tansa, Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna and Bhatsa. The water stock has now reached 62.14 percent of what is required after the monsoon ends. PTI had earlier reported that the stock in seven reservoirs had touched their highest level this time as compared to the last three years. Meanwhile, Mumbai Mirror reported that five gates of the Middle Vaitarna Lake were also opened on Friday because of heavy rain in the area. According to a civic officer, the Middle Vaitarna near Igatpuri had reached a level of 282.90 metres on Friday. However, by evening, it crossed a level of 284 metres, the spill level being 285 metres. In the official press release issued by Regional Meteorological Centre, Mumbai, under the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), heavy to very heavy rainfall is predicted in Mumbai, central and Konkan areas of Maharashtra. A report in The Asian Age states Mumbai has received 717 milimetres in Santa Cruz and 603.5 mm in Colaba rainfall till date since June.