Mumbai: 3 lakes filled to 70 per cent capacity, Tansa overflowing

A file picture of overflowing Tansa lake

With the fourth lake that supplies water to the city overflowing on Tuesday, it seems Mumbai's water woes won't be that critical the coming year. After three lakes reached 71.48 per cent of their full storage capacity of 14.47 lakh litres in the past three days, continuous rainfall over the weekend led Tansa to overflow on Tuesday morning. While Tulsi started to overflow on July 9, Modak Sagar reached its full capacity on Sunday and Vihar on Monday.

According to sources, on July 9 when Tulsi lake started overflowing, it hardly made any difference, as BMC had managed to stock up only 38 per cent of the city's total water needs. But the amount of water that has been stored over the past 10 days will last the city for the next 275 days. Even the major lakes that supply water to the city have been receiving heavy rainfall and BMC is hopeful that by the first week of August, total water required till July 2019, would get stored in the catchment areas of the lakes.

The sources further said that by July 17 this year the civic body has managed to store the highest amount of water as compared to the last two years. On July 17, 2016, the water available for use was 7.1 lakh million litres, and on the same date in 2017 it was 9.8 lakh million litres. However, this year the stored amount is 10.34 lakh million litres.

A statement released by a BMC spokesperson said, "Tansa, a lake supplying potable water to Mumbai, started overflowing on July 17, 2018 from 6.15 am. Last year, this lake had started overflowing on July 18 at 4.55 pm."

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