Mumbai likely to face crisis as water stock left only for 45 days, BMC says no plans to cut supply

The city of Mumbai is on the brink of a crisis as the water stock is expected to last only for a little over 45 days, according to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) data. Though the water stock is at slightly above 15 percent, the BMC has no plans to implement any water cuts for the month of June yet.

Mumbai’s water currently stands at 15.6 percent, which is approximately 2.5 lakh million litres as per BMC’s data. Last year on June 15 the water stock stood at 12.24 percent, while on the same date in 2021 it was 12.75 percent.

Each percentage point represents approximately 3 days’ of water supply, according to P Velrasu, additional municipal commissioner (Projects).

The city has seven lakes as primary sources of water which are situated in the outskirts and in the neighbouring districts of Thane, Bhiwandi, and Nashik.

Catchment areas of these lakes fill up when monsoon arrives and the water is transported to the city and suburbs via pipelines and tunnels.

However, the water levels in all seven lakes dipped below seven percent, as recorded on June 8. This prompted the BMC to dig into its reserve stock to maintain supply of water. The reserve stock is an additional amount of water stored within dams for emergencies or insufficient rainfall.

The BMC had made a request to the irrigation department to access 1.5 lakh million litres of water from the reserves in March.

“At present, the water stock of Mumbai stands little over 15 percent, which means that there is adequate storage for the next month. Rainfall is expected to arrive by the end of June, after which we will again review the situation and may take a call on whether water cuts need to be implemented in the city," Velrasu told reporters on Thursday.

Last year water cuts were enforced to make sure the city didn’t run out of water. A 10 percent cut was implemented from June to July as the city’s water stocks had plummeted below 10 percent.

Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted that Mumbai and its surrounding regions may experience rainfall starting from June 18 to June 21, due to the arrival of Southwest Monsoon. The delay in the arrival of Monsoon was attributed to the Cyclone Biparjoy, which caused a moisture diversion.