Water Levels In Seven Mumbai Lakes Surge Above 72% Capacity, Modak Sagar Overflows

Modak Sagar lake, one of the seven major reservoirs supplying water to Mumbai, began overflowing on Wednesday morning amid continuous heavy rainfall in the city.

The lake has a full storage capacity of 1,28,925 million litres. In the past 24 hours, the lake’s water level rose by 0.83 metres, leading to it reaching full capacity and beginning to overflow at 6:27 a.m. today, as per the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) data.

As a result, one gate of the lake’s dam has been opened one foot to manage the water flow, the civic body said.

“One gate of the Modak Sagar Lake has been opened by one foot, releasing a discharge of 1,022 cusecs per second,” the civic body said in a post on X. Till 6 a.m., the lake was at 99.99% capacity, holding 1,28,910 million litres of water.

Besides Modak Sagar, the seven other lakes supplying water to Mumbai are: Bhatsa, Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, Tansa, Vehar, and Tulsi. These are located across Mumbai, Thane, and Nashik districts and rely heavily on rainfall to refill.

The lakes have a combined capacity of 14,47,363 million litres of usable water. Till 6 a.m. today, they were holding 10,50,912 million litres of water, or 72.61% of capacity. This marks a slight increase compared to Tuesday morning when the lakes were holding 10,30,218 million litres or 71.18% water capacity.

All seven lakes except Middle Vaitarna recorded a rise in their water levels in the last 24 hours. Middle Vaitarna lake was at 93.15% capacity till 6 a.m., holding 1,80,293 million litres of water. After Middle Vaitarna’s capacity breached the 90% mark this week, the BMC started diverting the water in the downstream Modak Sagar (Lower Vaitarna) reservoir. This is likely one of the factors behind Modak Sagar’s increased water levels and subsequent overflowing.

With the India Meteorological Department predicting more rainfall over the next seven days in west India, it is likely that other lakes may also begin to overflow soon. The weather agency has issued a yellow alert for Mumbai for Wednesday, anticipating moderate to heavy rainfall at isolated places.

• July 9: Heavy rainfall at isolated places

• July 10: Moderate rainfall

• July 11-12: Light to moderate rainfall