The Times of India   17.08.2012

10% water cut till Sept 15, nod for 12 crore rain plan

Mumbai: With rains playing truant, Sitaram Kunte, municipal commissioner requested mayor Sunil Prabhu to call for an urgent meeting with the group leaders on Thursday, to discuss about starting the cloud seeding project in the catchment areas. The group leaders across all parties have approved Rs 12 crore for the said project.The civic administration informed the group leaders that the collective water stock for the city was 8 lakh MLD wherein Mumbai's requirement is around 12 lakh MLD.

There is a shortfall of 4 lakh MLD so far."The MET department has conveyed to the BMC that they were not very optimistic about the rainfall in the coming period. Based on this information, the civic administration wants to undertake the cloud seeding programme on an urgent basis. They have taken technical advice from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology(IITM),"said Rais Sheikh, corporator and leader of Samajwadi party.IITM made a presentation to the group leader on various aspects of cloud seeding; how successful it has been in 40 countries and information on how it has been successful in other parts of India."They are confident that if cloud seeding is undertaken there is a fair amount of the project succeeding.

This confidence is based on the data analysis done by a professor in Israel who mapped cloud patterns around catchment areas,"said Sheikh.Shaikh told TOI that the civic body admitted that last time the preparation was not to the mark and hence failed in 2009."Now the technical profiling of the cloud is done. The only hindrance was about getting an aircraft from Israel to India to conduct this kind of experiment. But now the Israeli company has found an Indian company which will provide the aircraft.

So, the problem of permissions is scaled down. IITM also has a lot of equipment present,"said Shaikh.The cost of this project is estimated to be Rs 12 crore. The experiment undertaken will provide a short term respite and also a long term solution when the city faces a water crisis in future.Shiv Sena-BJP alliance Samajwadi Party, MNS and NCP supported this proposal but opposition leader Gyanraj Nikam walked out from the meeting.