With heavy rains lashing the city of Mumbai today, the diminishing storage levels in the dams supplying water to Mumbai are expected to rise and combat the acute water shortage.

Dams With Depleting Water Storage

Dams supplying water now have only 20 days of storage left. However, the heavy rainfall comes as a relief.

The city’s water supply comes from various lakes which have only 73,000 million litres of water left. Every day, 2500 million litres of water is used from the reserved storage of Bhatsa and Vaitarna damns, which are operated by the state government.

Due to insufficient rainfall in 2018, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had cut 10% of the water supply.

The BMC had pointed out that on June 27, the amount of water was as low as 4.95%.

In 2017 and 2018, the figures were 24.26% and 18.70% respectively, indicating a considerable depletion. The BMC from Upper Vaitarna dam located in Nashik now has only 5.5 per cent of water left. Another source of water supply, Bhatsa Lake, has 22% of the scarce resource left. Bhatsa Lake, at present, has 103.64 litres of water, lowest till date.

Massive water scarcity across the state had pushed the citizens into a state of helplessness. This scarcity of water has affected the quality of water available.

The city usually witnesses rainfall from the second week of June. However, in 2019, with the delay in monsoons, the city suffered acute water scarcity.

Measures To Preserve Water

The city has deployed 6597 water tankers to ensure water supply in the city. The BMC had advised all the citizens of Mumbai to use water cautiously, till the city witnesses rainfall.

“The civic administration has made arrangements of supplying water to the citizens up to July-end, using reserve stocks of water. All are requested to cooperate, and the citizens must use water carefully,” the BMC said.

The water shortage in Mumbai, along with the bad quality of water and inequitable distribution has raised serious doubts over the long-term availability of water in the city, and the state.

Under the Jalyukt Shivar In 2017, Chief Minister Fadnavis had set 2019 as the year to make Maharashtra tanker-free as a result of water conservation works with community participation. However, the state faces acute water shortage at present, with little or no availability of water in some rural belts of the state.

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