Water Level In Mumbai Lakes Crosses 92% Storage Levels, Vihar Becomes Fourth Lake To Overflow This Season

The water level in Mumbai lakes increased further on Tuesday, reaching 92.42% of the total 14,47,363 million litres capacity, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) data showed. A day ago, the combined capacity of the seven lakes stood at 91.18% amid heavy rainfall in the city.

These seven lakes: Modak Sagar, Tansa, Bhatsa, Upper Vaitarna, Vihar, Tulsi and Middle Vaitarna serve as a lifeline for Mumbai’s water supply needs and depend on rainfall to recharge. 

As Mumbai has been receiving continuous heavy rainfall for the last few days, the water levels in these lakes have gone up. Still, the combined capacity is marginally lower than a year ago, when the levels stood at 93.17%.

On Monday, Vihar became the fourth lake to overflow this season after reaching its full capacity of 27,698 million litres. "Vehar Lake started overflowing on Aug. 18 at 2:45 p.m.," the BMC said in its release.

Last week, Tulsi Lake started overflowing and has remained at its peak capacity now. Earlier, Modak Sagar and Tansa lakes started overflowing after reaching their peak capacities in July.

At present, the storage capacity of all seven lakes stands at: Upper Vaitarna - 88.01%, Modak Sagar - 91.74%, Tansa - 99.26%, Middle Vaitarna - 97.51%, Bhatsa - 90.80%, Vihar - 100% and Tulsi - 100%.

The continuous rise in the water levels of Tulsi and Vihar lakes came as the two reservoirs received more than 200 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours, according to the BMC data. While Vihar received 225 mm of rainfall, Tulsi received 256 mm of rainfall throughout Monday. This comes as the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a red alert for Mumbai for Aug. 18 and 19, warning of extremely heavy rainfall in the city.

• Aug. 19: Heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places with extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places "very likely" in Mumbai (Red alert)

• Aug. 20: Heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places is "very" likely (Orange alert)

• Aug. 21: Heavy rainfall at isolated places (Yellow alert)

• Aug. 22: Moderate rainfall is "very likely"

The IMD said that Palghar, Thane and Raigad are expected to experience similar weather conditions this week.