2 biggest lakes may not fill up, fears BMC
Lifting of water cut depleting reservoirs: officials With less than two weeks for monsoon to end, officials at the BMC’s hydraulic engineering department are worried that despite plentiful rain this season, the two biggest lakes may not fill to capacity this year too.
Four out of six lakes that supply water to Mumbai are overflowing after sufficient rainfall in their catchment areas. Upper Vaitarna and Bhatsa, the two biggest lakes, are yet to fill to full capacity. Upper Vaitarna, accounting for 18 per cent of the total water supply to the city is still 0.22 metres short of overflowing, while state government-owned Bhatsa dam that supplies 59 per cent of the total supply is almost a metres short of the overflow mark.
“While it has been raining in the city, rainfall in the catchment areas of the lakes has not been very heavy in September. If it rains heavily and consistently over the next two weeks there could be chances of the two lakes filling up,” said BMC hydraulic engineer Vinay Deshpande.
An civic official requesting anonymity said since the water cut has been lifted completely for September, large quantities of water are being drawn from Upper Vaitarna and Bhatsa and thus the two lakes are unlikely to reach overflow mark.
“The water cut had to be lifted due to political pressure during September for the festivals, due to which water has to be drawn from Upper Vaitarna. At Bhatsa, water is being supplied for the state government’s electricity generation project on a daily basis,” said the official.
The BMC will take a review of water situation at September end and accordingly decide whether a small percentage of water cut needs to be re-imposed. On Saturday, the available quantity of water in the lakes was 12.8 lakh million liters while the full supply quantity when all the six lakes are full is 13.5 lakh million litres. Last year, the lakes had only 9.3 lakh ml on the same day.
Rainfall in the catchment areas of the lakes has not been heavy in September. If it rains heavily the lakes may fill. Vinay Deshpande, BMC hydraulic engineer