Water cuts could worsen in city

The water crisis in Mumbai could deepen should rain elude the city’s catchment belts.
Water levels in the six reservoirs which supply water to the city have been fast depleting, prompting the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to announce a 10% water cut in Mumbai a week ago. The threat of further cuts in the water supply looms large, with catchment belts receiving no rain in the last seven days.

Santosh Korlekar of the civic hydraulic department said, “Senior civic officials will meet on Tuesday to review the situation.” The regional meteorological department has predicted no rain for at least 72 hours.

Of the six water reservoirs, water levels at Vihar and Upper Vaitarna have dipped below their lowest drawable levels. “Water is being drawn from the reserve quota at these reservoirs. Supply from these is below usual quantity,” Korlekar said.

Levels at Tansa are on the brink of dipping below the lowest drawable mark too. Levels at the remaining three reservoirs are not encouraging too. While a delayed monsoon has led to water cuts in June for three years, the fact that the catchment belts are yet to receive any rainfall this year has got the department worried.

There has been a rise in the number of complaints regarding water shortage, especially in the western suburbs and the island city after the 10% water cut was imposed in the city, last week, civic officials said.

Most complaints were received from Lokhandwala (Andheri), Churchgate, Saat Rasta and Kasaiwada (Kurla).

Dr Sathi Devi, director general, Regional Meteorological Centre, Colaba, said on Sunday that “the monsoon has not progressed”.

The monsoon had reached Ratnagiri on June 7 but has not progressed since. “There will definitely be no rain for the next two days,” Dr Devi added.

However, the city has been experiencing a drizzle and there have been partly cloudy skies, while southern parts of Maharashtra have experienced thundershowers.

“This is not unusual for this time of the year,” she explained.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said in Pune on Sunday that the “no advancement status” of the southwest monsoon will continue for some time.

State agriculture commissioner Prabhakar Deshmukh has called a review meeting with department officials on Monday to review the delayed onset on monsoon.

An IMD bulletin on Sunday said the current meteorological analysis and numerical weather prediction models suggested that the southwest monsoon will not advance during the next three to four days. This may lead to a delay in monsoon advance over Maharashtra, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, parts of Andhra Pradesh and southern parts of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

Deputy director-general of meteorology AB Mazumdar said the delay in advancement of the southwest monsoon will continue for a few days as there was no favourable condition. But he said eastern parts of the country, particularly parts of West Bengal, may experience advancement.

“The monsoon current is so weak that it has delayed its advancement,” Mazumdar said.
IMD officials said advancement of the monsoon stopped since June 7 over Ratnagiri, Gadag (Karnataka), Anantapur, Ongole (Andhra Pradesh), Paradip, Balasore (Orissa), Bankura (West Bengal) and Gangtok.

IMD director (weather forecasting) Medha Khole had last week said the southwest monsoon had become “weak and sluggish” hindering advancement.

A duty officer at IMD described the unfavourable conditions as lack of moisture and supporting wind. “The thrust required to push the monsoon is lacking,” the official said.

Mazumdar had said that the monsoon current was so weak that the pace of flow of wind is only 20 to 30 kmph. “The speed of wind should at least 100 kmph to enable the southwest monsoon to advance,” he said, explaining that the delay in advancement and revival of monsoon was normal. IMD had predicted about 96% average rainfall this year. IMD will update the average rainfall by the month-end.

—With inputs from Deepa Suryanarayan/Mumbai