Water woes over, 4 lakes cross full supply level

As water woes of the last two years become a thing of past, it's time to rejoice for Mumbai. After Vihar lake, the Modak Sagar and Tansa lakes have started overflowing. With this, four out of seven lakes supplying water to the city have crossed the full supply levels. This is the first time in the history of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) that three lakes have started overflowing within 24 hours.

While Vihar started overflowing at 4.20am on August 1, Modak Sagar started overflowing at 10.28pm on Monday night and Tansa started overflowing at 2.14am on Tuesday. Lakes supplying water to the city have now received 82% of total stock needed for the entire year. While total requirement for the city is 14.50 lakh litres, the present stock is more than 11.89 lakh litres.

Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna and Bhatsa are the three catchment areas that still need to be filled. The expanse of these catchment areas is vast and it would take a while for it to come to full supply level. "We are happy with the present water stock. The city has been facing water cut for the last two years. Hopefully, we will be able to continue with full supply throughout the year," said BMC hydraulic engineer Ashok Tavadia.

According to the water department, the scenario seems promising for other three lakes as well. While Upper Vaitarna is three meters away from full supply level, Bhatsa is five meters away and Middle Vaitarna is 6.5 meters away from brimming.