Mumbai: The Modak Sagar, one of the major lakes supplying potable water to Mumbai, began overflowing on Saturday morning due to heavy rain over the last few days. The Modak Sagar supplies 440 million litres of Mumbai’s daily water requirement of 3,750 million litres.
Civic officers said the Modak Sagar started overflowing at 6.32 a.m. on Saturday after reaching its maximum capacity of 163.05 metres. The lake received 1,399 mm of rainfall on Saturday. “It is important for the lakes to fill up during monsoon if the city is to get regular water throughout the year,” A.S. Tawadia, Hydraulic Engineer, BMC, said.
He added that Mumbai needs 14,35,000 million litres of rainwater to accumulate by the end of the monsoon for water supply to last the city for the rest of the year. As of Saturday, water in all seven lakes is at 8,99,000 million litres; this was 6,83,000 million litres at the same time last year. “We cannot say at this point if there will be fewer or zero water cuts this year. The strategy for the year will be finalised on October 1,” he said.
The Regional Meteorological Centre has predicted that intermittent rain with thundershowers are likely in the city and suburbs in the next 24 hours, with heavy rainfall at isolated places.
