Modak Sagar lake near Mumbai starts overflowing; officials blame downpour for increase in water level

Mumbai: The Modak Sagar lake, one of the seven reservoirs supplying water to Mumbai, started overflowing on Friday afternoon following heavy rains over the past few days, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said. [caption id=“attachment_7063721” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representative image. News18 Lokmat[/caption] This comes a day after the Tansa lake, another key source of potable water for the metropolis, started overflowing. Modak Sagar, located in adjoining Thane district on the Vaitarna River, is the third reservoir after the Tulsi and the Tansa to get filled to the brim. “Modak Sagar lake started overflowing from 5.20 pm on Friday. Last year, this lake had started overflowing from 15 July,” a senior civic official said. Modak Sagar is the second largest of the lakes supplying water to Mumbai. The official said that heavy downpour for three consecutive days starting Wednesday has helped in significantly increasing the level in all the seven lakes supplying water to Mumbai. The total water stock in all the seven reservoirs taken together stood at 57.86 per cent of their storage capacity as on 25 July. The total water storage capacity of Mumbai’s lakes is 14.47 lakh million litres. Four other lakes- Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, Bhatsa and Vihar lakes- are yet to overflow. With the rising level in these lakes, the BMC had last week rolled back the 10 per cent water cut that was in force since November last year.