There’s some good news for Mumbaikars, who are praying for rains. The catchment areas of most of the lakes that supply water to the city got much better rainfall on Friday. Compared to Thursday, when Vaitarna, Tansa and Bhatsa received 4.6, 4 and 6 mm rainfall, on Friday, the quantities were 16.6, 9.8 and 16 mm.“It’s a good beginning considering there was no rainfall at all in the month of June in our lakes.

 

But our cuts will continue, as we still need more water to fill up our lakes. As of today, water in seven major lakes — which supplies water to the city — is 1.09 lakh million litres (enough to last for 24 days) compared to 3.01 lakh million litres last year,” informs a BMC official from the Hydraulic department.

 

The city faced a similar water crisis in July 2009, when a 30 per cent water cut was imposed on the city. The water cut back then was the maximum permitted by Mumbai's water supply network.