Water cuts: Mumbaikars's fate to be decided in 10 days

With less rainfall this year and lakes drying up, Mumbaikars have a reason to worry as the local civic body has said it will decide on implementation of water cuts in the metropolis in 10 days.

"We will wait for 10 days or so then decide whether to implement water cuts or not. By July 10 or 12 we will decide about water cuts," additional municipal commissioner Rajiv Jalota said.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has said it has sufficient water stock for the city until July 20. If it doesn't rain till then, the BMC will start looking at options to curb the usage of water.

"As of now there are no talks about water cuts. It is expected that in July there will be more rainfall. If there is no rainfall in the coming days then we will think of water cuts," mayor Shraddha Jadhav said.

Currently, there is 1,60,242 million litres of water in all the six lakes - Modak Sagar, Tansa, Vihar, Tulsi, Upper Vaitarna and Bhatsa as against 69,700 million litres of water last year. In the year 2009, there was 1,64,316 million litres of water.

"With regards to Tansa lake there is a reason to worry. But now we are drawing water from Modak Sagar. We have started from 50 million litres of water per day," Jalota said.

According to the BMC, this year there is 119.42 million litres of water in Tansa Lake, while last year during the same period there was 120.89 million litres of water.

Due to scanty rainfall in 2009, the city was reeling under 15-30 per cent water cuts for over a year.

While officials from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) say there is no need to panic and that the monsoon currents will pick up in two-three days.