With the delay on the arrival of the monsoon, the water crisis has deepened in Mumbai. To tackle this, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) finally started using reserved water stock from the Upper Vaitarana lake from Friday.
As water levels started depleting in city lakes, the civic body has decided to use 50 per cent of the reserved supply in Bhatsa and Upper Vaitarana lakes. It had sought permission from the state government in this regard.
Bhatsa and Upper Vaitarana lakes supply 70 per cent of Mumbai’s water respectively. The reserved water stock in the Bhatsa dam is 2.25 lakh litres, whereas in Upper Vaitarana is 92,500 litres. “As both dams belong to the state government, we had sought an approval from state officials before using their reserved stock. They have given us the permission and have also started releasing 450 cusecs of water daily from the Upper Vaitarana from Friday. The reserved stock of Bhatsa lake will be used when the need arises,” said chief hydraulic engineer A.K. Tawadia.
According to civic officials, the seven lakes supplying water to Mumbai – Modak Sagar, Tansa, Vihar, Tulsi, Upper Vaitarana, Bhatsa and Middle Vaitarana – presently have 1.05 million litres (ml) of water stock, which will suffice till the month of June. By using the reserved stock of Upper Vaitarana and Bhatsa, the supply would last till the end of July.
As a precautionary measure, the BMC has imposed 20 per cent water cuts on residential users and 50 per cent on commercial and industrial consumers. The BMC has also denied new connections to public and private gardens till there is enough improvement in water stock. It has also directed that water connections of public swimming pools and AC plants be stopped.
Learning lessons from past failures, the civic body has decided not to carry out cloud seeding this monsoon. In 2009, when the city was reeling under acute water shortage, the civic body had tried to induce artificial rains in the catchments areas of Tansa and Modak Sagar lakes with the help of cloud seeding. The civic body implemented both manual as well as aerial methods for the cloud seeding. However, both these methods failed.
Devotees to seek god’s intervention The delayed rains, which has not only exacerbated the drought in the state but is also causing problems for devotees observing fasts in the month of Ramadan, has prompted a citizen group to conduct a special prayer Namaz Istisqa (prayer for rain) opposite St Michael Church, Lady Jamshedji Road, Mahim (west) on Sunday at 11 am. According to Sayed Muhammad Ismail, an activist from Mahim, there is historical evidence that Holy Prophet Mohammad and his successors offered this prayer. He said that people participating in the prayers should wear old clothes and the prayer would be led by Imam Maulana Shakeel of Bismillah Masjid at Muhammad Ali Road.
