Ten per cent water cut from next week for Mumbai

Mumbai: There's bad news awaiting residents of Mumbai. With the monsoon playing truant, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to impose 10 per cent water cut from July 1. The water department reached the conclusion only as a precautionary measure and officials said that they would review the situation on July 15 to see if the cut was to be continued.

Commenting on the water stock of the city, Rajiv Jalota, additional municipal commissioner, said, "We have limited water stock as of now and are not in a position to take a risk. However, if it rains heavily before July 1, the cut will not be imposed."

Sources told MiD DAY that all six lakes - Tansa, Bhatsa, Vihar, Modak Sagar, Tulsi and Upper Vaitarna - that supply water to the city have enough to last the city for the next 56 days.

Meanwhile, VK Rajeev, director of the Regional Meteorological Department (Western region) said, "It is not as if there is no rainfall. We are expecting heavy rainfall in the next two-three days and these spells of rain will help the water supply."

At present, BMC supplies 3,350 million litres of water daily to the city whereas the city needs 4,200 million litres per day (MLD). The total stock in all the six lakes, have not crossed 80,000 million litres, while the city requires 13 lakh million litres stock to supply water without a cut throughout the year.

70,622 mld
Total water stock of the city as on June 27, 2012

1,48,047 mld
Total water stock of the city on June 27, 2011