Mumbai dips into reserve water stock as rain plays truant

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, June 27

For the first time in nearly 40 years, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been forced to dip into the city’s reserve stock of water as the monsoon has played truant.

”The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has made arrangements to supply water from the reserve stock which will last till the end of July,” the civic body said in a statement released here on Thursday.  The BMC said it supplies 3750 million litres of water daily to Mumbai as against the actual demand of 4200 mld.

The statement added that the seven reservoirs, Modak Sagar, Tansa, Vihar, Tulsi, Upper Vaitarna, Bhatsa and Middle Vaitarna which supply water to the city are reaching dead storage levels. The amount of water left in the reservoirs is just five per cent of their capacity, according to the BMC.

The city’s reservoirs have just 71,574 million litres left now. In comparison the amount of water last year was 270,668 million litres (18.70 per cent) while in 2017 it was 351,081 million litres (24.26
per cent).

Mumbai is yet to receive heavy rain though the IMD has announced that the monsoon has reached the city.