Heavy rains fill lakes near Mumbai to 99 percent capacity

Mumbai: With the city and its outskirts receiving good rains this monsoon, the seven reservoirs that supply water to the metropolis have been filled to 99 percent capacity, a civic body official said on Monday. [caption id=“attachment_2936906” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] According to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s lake level report released on Monday, all the seven lakes have as much as 14,39,381 million litres of water, as against the capacity to store 14,47,363 mn litres. “Out of our full supply level of 14,47,363 million litres of water, our lakes are filled with 14,39,381 million litres of water today morning, which is 99.45 percent of our total stock and capacity,” an official from the hydraulic department of BMC said, adding they have enough water for over 385 days. Mumbai’s water supply comes from seven reservoirs - Modak Sagar, Tansa Lake, Vihar Lake, Tulsi Lake, Upper Vaitarna, Bhatsa and Middle Vaitarna. The Bhatsa and Upper Vaitarna come under state government’s control while the others are maintained by the BMC. The official said Bhatsa and Upper Vaitarna reservoirs have reached full supply level (FSL) for the first time. The BMC supplies 3,750 million litres of water everyday to the island city and suburbs, which still falls short of the actual demand for 4,200 million litres. In the recent past, insufficient rainfall had forced the BMC to impose water cuts. “Since we have got sufficient rain this year and we have enough water for the year to come, it does not mean that we can start using water indiscriminately. We always need to be judicious to save the water,” he said. In the recent years, apart from less rainfall, rapid growth in population of Greater Mumbai and huge losses occurring due to leakages of the pipelines and illegal water connections tapping into these pipes have always been a matter of big concern for civic officials. Meanwhile, the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, which was parched during the summer season, witnessed huge rainfall during the monsoon, resulting in a number of villages getting flooded, especially in Beed district, and NDRF has been deployed in rescue efforts. The long spell of rains has led to the dams in Latur getting filled. Bollywood actor Riteish Deshmukh expressed his joy over good water collection in dams of Latur. “Latur Manjra Dam overflows after 9 years. News everyone was waiting to hear & a sight everyone was waiting to see,” Deshmukh tweeted on Monday.