No water cuts in Mumbai in immediate future, says BMC

At a high-level meeting led by Municipal Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) announced that there will be no immediate water cuts in the city of Mumbai in the immediate future. 

 

The current water stock in the reservoirs stands at only 22.66 per cent of total capacity and the total available water stock is 3.28 lakh million litres (ML). This lower of the water is because of high evaporation during this time of the year, when summers lead to excessive heat in the city. 

 

Despite this drop, civic officials assured that planning has been done to maintain adequate water supply until July 31.

 

A BMC official reportedly said that as of now there will not be any water cuts but he also said that citizens must remain conscious about saving water. 

 

The state government has approved the release of 68,000 ML from the Upper Vaitarna Dam and 113,000 ML from the Bhatsa Dam to support Mumbai’s water needs. 

 

The BMC provides around 3,950 million litres of water to the city daily. On the same date last year, the stock stood slightly higher at 3.33 lakh ML (23.01 per cent). The final decision on water cuts will depend on future rainfall forecasts. 

 

Experts say that there are many problems associated with Mumbai's water supply and the biggest is that the sources, that is the lakes, lie as far as 120 kilometres from the city, connected via a critical but an ageing network of tunnels.

 

Despite this vast infrastructure, Mumbai faces a daily shortfall of nearly 450 million litres. And this is because of high leakage rates and unaccounted-for water loss which continue to challenge supply efficiency.

 

Even today, many in the slum areas lack direct water connections, relying instead on shared standpipes or tanker supply.

 

While the BMC has proposed ambitious plans including desalination plants and reuse of treated wastewater, nothing has taken off on the ground.

India