Rains back, but brace for more water cuts in Mumbai

A spell of good rains on Sunday left the city drenched, but that was far from quenching its thirst. With the catchment areas continuing to receive subnormal rainfall, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is likely to inflict an additional water cut in a range of 5 per cent to 10 per cent.

In a normal case, the BMC supplies 3,750 million litres daily (MLD) water to city as against the actual requirement of 4,200 MLD. But in view of poor rainfall, the civic body has been implementing 20 per cent cut in time slot for which it supplies water to domestic consumers.

The corporation reduced water supply to recreational facilities and commercial establishments between 50 per cent and 100 per cent since July 17 as useful content across lakes continued to recede. The BMC is set to review the water situation by the month-end. But the current situation has left the corporation mulling over additional cuts. Nearly 89 per cent of BMC's consumers are domestic ones.

"The water stock is at four-year low. We can go for cloud seeding, but are not sure of how effective it will be. Also, it is a short-run measure. So there is no other way left for us but to consider an additional water cut," said a senior civic official, wishing not to be named.

The official though said the cut is unlikely to be more than 10 per cent. "The system won't be able to handle a sudden shock. So we are likely to increase cut by a meagre 5 per cent to 10 per cent. Rains started picking up in catchment areas in the afternoon on Sunday. We hope it rains heavily over the next few days as even we are not happy with inflicting cuts," he said.

The official said the BMC will take a final call on the duration of restricted supply by month-end. "We can only appeal residents to use water judiciously. Save every drop of water, a valuable resource," he added.

Meanwhile, Mumbai was lashed by heavy rainfall on Sunday with the Santa Cruz and Colaba receiving 102.4 mm and 65.4 mm showers respectively between 8:30 am to 8:30 pm.

Stocktaking: July 27, 2014

Total water available: 3,51,685 million litres

Stock on the same day last year: 11,32,942 million litres

Annual water requirement (as on October 1): 13.50 million litres