Urban News

The ongoing water supply cuts will continue till at least the third week of July, even if a good monsoon arrives within a fortnight as predicted. Only after July 15 will the BMC review the cuts, 15 per cent for domestic users and 30 per cent for commercial ones.

The current stock, supplied at 2,900 million litres per day (mld), will last another 48 days if it does not rain. The monsoon is expected to hit the Kerala coast by the end of May, and Mumbai by June 10, but deputy municipal commissioner Dinesh Gondaliya said the cuts will have to continue till the six lakes that supply water to the city fill up substantially.

“Like everyone else, we too are hopeful of a good monsoon. But to be on the safe side, we cannot lift or reduce the water cut till at least mid-July. We will conduct review meetings around July 15 and if the rainfall is exceptionally good and the lake levels rise steadily then we can think about reducing the cut,” said Gondaliya.

In a good monsoon, the Modak Sagar and Tulsi lakes start overflowing by mid-July, the Tansa and the Vihar by the second week of August, and the Upper Vaitarna and the Bhatsa towards the end of August.

The BMC is worried the lakes may take longer than usual to fill up, because of the dry weather and because the water level is low. “The land in the catchment areas is totally dry. When it starts raining it will take over a week for the land to get saturated with water. Only after that will water run off into the lakes. Also, since the levels are extremely low, they will take more days to get filled up,” said an official from the hydraulic engineering department. 

At present, the lakes have a total available stock of 1,37,876 million litres, against 2,88,737 million litres on the same day last year.

The BMC has said it will be able to supply 2,900 mld till July 15. The city’s demand is 4,250 mld, of which the BMC supplied around 3,400 mld till it imposed the cuts since July. The city loses 700 mld to leakages, theft and pilferage.