Every Drop Counts: Despite water cut, Mumbai loses more water stock than last year

  • | Tuesday | 11th December, 2018

Despite BMC's 10 per cent water cut, the city has used more water stock than it had during the same period, in 2017. After poor rains and an insufficient stock of water in the lakes, the BMC imposed 10 per cent water cut in November. "Though the civic body claims to have enforced a 10 per cent water cut, my area receives only 50 per cent of its share. Though the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had imposed water cut to conserve water up till the next monsoon season, the lake levels do not paint a positive picture currently. The city used 1,49,093 million litre of water during the same period in 2017 and there were no water cuts.

Though the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had imposed water cut to conserve water up till the next monsoon season, the lake levels do not paint a positive picture currently. Despite BMC's 10 per cent water cut, the city has used more water stock than it had during the same period, in 2017. As per the latest information, the city has already lost more than 5,000 MLD of water from its stock. In normal circumstances, the city gets a supply of 3,800 MLD of water daily, without cuts. A part of that quota is wasted through leakages and evaporation. Corporators are already complaining about insufficient water supply in their respective areas. The present situation hints at further water cuts in future. After poor rains and an insufficient stock of water in the lakes, the BMC imposed 10 per cent water cut in November. Yet, the stock decreased to 66 per cent, as recorded on Monday. The city gets its water from seven lakes and dams with a total storage capacity of 14.50 lakh million litre. If the lakes were full to their utmost capacity on October 1, the city which uses 10 per cent of the stock each month on an average, would have gotten uninterrupted supply till July-end. This year, the city had accumulated only 93 per cent of its capacity. This accumulated share further decreased to 77 per cent on November 10 and to save water for the summer months, the civic body declared a water cut on November 14. The city has used 11 per cent or 1,55,493 million litre of water in the last 30 days. This means the city lost roughly 5,183 MLD water every day, which is more than last year's daily loss. The city used 1,49,093 million litre of water during the same period in 2017 and there were no water cuts. BMC's hydraulic engineer Ashok Kumar Tawadia remained unavailable to comment on the issue. What Do Corporators Say The corporators are already complaining about insufficient and irregular supple of water in their respective areas. "Though the civic body claims to have enforced a 10 per cent water cut, my area receives only 50 per cent of its share. We have raised an alarm several times. I will protest against this in the standing committee if our problem is not solved until Wednesday," said Abhijeet Samant, a corporator from Vile Parle. "Situation at my ward is worse than that at Vidarbha. The Colaba and the Fort area has not received a regular supply. The BMC officers say that we are at the far end of the supply chain but, until monsoon we were getting sufficient and regular supply," corporator Sujata Sanap said in the standing committee meeting.

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