After 24 hours of incessant rain, water stock goes up by mere 1%

Mumbai: The city witnessed incessant rain in the past 24 hours which resulted in a 1% rise in its water stock, much lesser compared to last year’s 18% on July 1, 2021. Currently, the overall water stock in Mumbai stands at 1.57 million litres which is 10.9% of the overall stock, against the total capacity of 14.43 million litres.

The city draws its water supply from seven lakes, including Bhatsa, Middle Vaitarna, Upper Vaitarna, Tansa and Modak Sagar, which are in the Thane district and the Tulsi and Vihar lakes that are located within the city limits at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP).

The total water stock of the city is calculated by observing the present quantity of water availability in each of these lakes.

Earlier this week, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) implemented a 10% water cut in Mumbai along with adjoining districts like Thane and Kalyan-Dombivli.

Senior officials of the civic hydraulics department stated that the catchment areas where these lakes are located didn’t record a significant proportion of rains in the past 24 hours.

“In the past 24 hours, the water capacity has only risen by 1%. The Tulsi and Vihar lakes which are located within the Mumbai city limits have received a decent proportion of rain, meanwhile, the remaining catchment areas experience a scarcity of rainfall,” said a senior official of BMC.

Officials said that usually, the maximum rainfall above these catchment areas takes place during July end or August and unless the stocks improve, the water cut will be active in Mumbai.

Meanwhile, owing to the heavy rainfall, several parts of the city went underwater. According to the BMC bulletin, areas such as Mahim, Dadar, Dharavi, Parel, and Worli received rainfall over 200mm. Following this several chronic flooding spots in these areas went underwater.

Sunil Deshmukh, a Mahim resident, shared, “The road between areas connecting Hindmata and King’s Circle also got submerged despite BMC taking proactive measures.”

Meanwhile, in Andheri, areas like Lokhandwala and Oshiwara got entirely submerged. “Almost all the areas in Andheri and Juhu went under water. The main roads went knee-deep underwater and most of the flooding took place in areas that are under construction,” said Dhaval Shah, member of Lokhandwala Oshiwara Citizen’s Association.

“The Khar subway has been entirely submerged since Thursday. The water level in the subway rose to the waist of a person despite BMC’s claim of abating flood in this area this year,” said Charles Simoes, a local resident.