Sparing residents from further water cuts, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) has raised the water cut of hotels and commercial set ups in the city to 50 per cent from Thursday.
“To provide relief to small consumers, we have decided to contain the water cuts of the residents at 20 per cent, but all the bulk consumers will now have to face a water cut of 50 per cent starting today,” Deputy Municipal Commissioner Ramesh Bambale said.
“All hotels and restaurants across Mumbai will now be supplied only 50 per cent water than what they originally received,” he said.
A review meeting on raising water cuts for residents will be held after July 31, he said.
A “severe water shortage” in catchment areas is the reason behind the steep increase in water cuts, he said.
“Statistics show that the catchment areas have only received 30 per cent of the rainfall of what was received on an average in the last 10 years during this period. Hence there is a huge shortfall of 70 per cent,” Bambale said.
Water supply to swimming pools and gardens run by the MCGM will be eventually shut, if the situation does not improve in the short term, he said.
For construction sites, supply will be reduced to 15 mm, which will suffice the drinking water needs of the construction workers.
“For packaged drinking water companies, we have decided to provide water enough to quench the thirst of their employees,” he said.
As of yesterday, the capacity of seven major lakes which supply water to the city was 1.11 lakh million litres (enough to last for about 28 days) compared to 8,80,007 lakh million litres last year.
