With water levels in Mumbai dropping below 50 per cent, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has warned of a water cut from this month-end. Due to the scarcity of water, BMC’s hydraulic engineering department has requested additional reserve water stock from Bhatsa and Upper Vaitarna.
The department has floated a request for an extra 1.37 lakh million from Bhatsa, while 93,500 million litres from Upper Vaitarna.
The city draws water from seven lakes; Tuesday’s water level stood at 49.37 per cent or nearly 7.1 lakh million litres. This is the city’s lowest water stock level in the last three years.
The civic officials are looking to impose a 10 per cent cut on the water by February end if the irrigation department does not approve the request to grant additional reserve water stock.
P Malwade, civic hydraulic engineer informed Times of India that they have sent a letter to the irrigation department to approve the additional reserve stock in February itself. Last year, the letter was sent in March, leading to a delay. “It will be a neck-to-neck situation, hence a water cut will have to be imposed.” said another engineer on the condition of anonymity to the English daily.
On February 13, 2023, the total water stock was at 7.9 lakh million litres or 55 per cent; on the same date in 2022, it stood at nearly 8.3 lakh million litres or 57 per cent.
P Velrasu, Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects) spoke with Indian Express and said that owing to low rainfall in September and October during monsoon, the city is grappling with low levels of water. He added that after a delayed onset of monsoon, last year, the city experienced its early withdrawal that is four days before its official time.
Last month, Navi Mumbai witnessed a 12-hour water cut for two consecutive days due to impending maintenance and repair work that is to be carried out on the supply line by the CIDCO.
The water supply in Navi Mumbai’s Dronagiri, JNPT, Ulwe, Kharghar, and Taloja nodes and the villages on the Hetawane water supply line remained closed from 9 AM on Friday, January 5 to 9 AM on Saturday, January 6.
Comments
0 comment