Mumbai: City missing a lake’s worth of water per day

Is Mumbai heading in the same direction as Bengaluru and Delhi which have been facing severe water crises with dams drying up Despite Maximum City experiencing serious water issues for the past 10 years the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC hasnrsquot taken any firm steps to improve its water stock For the third consecutive year the BMC has imposed water cuts due to the delayed monsoon This has happened every yearmdashexcept for twomdashin the past decadeProjects such as the Gargai dam or desalination plant at Manori which have been discussed for over a decade have seen no progress Also the amount of water that is unaccounted for is a whopping 30 per cent of the total supply to the citymdashmore than the daily amount supplied by a large damWith water levels touching a new low and delayed monsoon the water crisis has become the new normal for the city despite lsquonormal rainrsquo during monsoon season The situation will remain the same for at least the next five years as no water projects are anticipated to be completed till thenCurrently the city receives 3850 MLD million litres per day of water from seven lakes against the requirement of at least 4500 MLD which could possibly rise to 5000 MLD in the next five years To match the demandsupply ratio the desalination project at Manori which can add 200 MLD of water after three years will help to some extent The projectrsquos 200 MLD capacity can be later expanded to 400 MLD In addition the BMC revised a plan to construct a Gargai dam in the Tansa sanctuary which can add 440 MLD of water to the cityrsquos supply But both projects are in limboThe Bhatsa dam near Shahapur in Thane district on June 15 PicRanjeet JadhavGargai damThe most recently constructed reservoir the Middle Vaitarna dam was built and commissioned in March 2014 The construction work on the dam began in October 2008 Though the BMC has been working on the Gargai dam for the past decade nothing much happened on that front The project needs an environmental clearance from the Centrersquos Forest Advisory Committee FAC and the National Wildlife Board ldquoBut before that the proposal has to get a nod from the state forest department We recently sent a letter to the forest department to complete a procedure to hand over 650 hectares of land in Chandrapur district for compensatory afforestation The afforestation has to be started to get permissionrdquo said a senior BMC official The process of getting permission has been going on for five years but there has been no progress Besides the BMC also surveyed villages that need to be rehabilitated ldquoWe are ready to do all the required processes but we do not have control over the speed of other departments so we cannot say when we will get all the necessary permissionsrdquo said the officialDesalination plantThe BMC in February 2021 appointed an Israeli company to prepare a detailed proposal for the Manori project In January 2022 the corporation engaged SMEC India to evaluate the study and designs prepared by the Israeli firm The civic body issued a tender notice on December 4 2023 to set up a plant which can turn saline water potable The deadline for submitting tenders was January 4 2024 but the BMC extended it at least seven times and now the new deadline is June 27 2024 ldquoThis is the first project of its kind and we have been working on many new things International bidders want clarifications on many issues so it is timeconsumingrdquo said a civic officer attached to water projectsGiving a work order will take another six months even after receiving tenders The project will take at least four years to be completed The estimated cost of the project is Rs 3520 crore Apart from construction heavy expenses are likely to be incurred for electricity maintenance and asset replacement It is estimated that over 20 years the project will cost Rs 8500 croreMissing 30 per centIn general around 25 per cent of the total water supply in the commercial capital is unmetered or unaccounted for due to leakages unauthorised connections water theft and metering inaccuracies Ideally the loss percentage should not be more than 15 per cent of the total supply But currently the unaccounted water is 30 per cent which is also due to a high evaporation rate said a senior official from the BMC It is a huge number considering the amount of daily supply The city received 3850 MLD This means almost 1100 MLD is missing Even if the BMC managed to reduce the unmetered water to 15 per cent then almost 550 ml of water would be savedAs per records the civic body recorded 20 per cent nonrevenue water NRW in 2009 With the help of digitisation and GPS the aim was to reduce water loss to 15 per cent Fifteen years later the BMC is still fighting the menace while the percentage of water loss has jumped by 10 per cent ldquoThe problem lies with old pipelines continuous leakages undetected leakages and delays in carrying out repairs There is also a major issue with pumping out water unauthenticatelyrdquo saidan officialWhat is todayrsquos situationThe water stock of seven lakes supplying water to the city is 538 per cent of their total capacity This is the lowest stock in the past three years Last year the city lakes had 848 per cent of stock whereas in 2022 the stock was 1149 per centAfter receiving permission from the state government the BMC started fetching reserved quota from the Upper Vaitarna and Bhatsa As on June 17 the city used 30767 million litres of reserved water from 91130 millionlitre quota of Upper Vaitarna and 11848 ml water from the 137000millionlitre carryover contention of BhatsaBMC chief speaksldquoWe have been working on a desalination project but it is going to provide only 200 MLD of water which is way below our requirement Currently we are pushing the Gargai dam project which needs environmental clearance But we focused on it and will try to clear it as soon as possible The other two dams are not on the priority list as of nowrdquo said Municipal Administrator Bhushan Gagrani He added that unlike Delhi or Bengaluru the city gets good rainfall and ldquowe are never short of potable waterrdquo3850 MLDAmount of water received by city from seven lakesRs 3520 crEstimated cost of Manori desalination plantShortages and water cuts since 20142024 The BMC imposed a 5 per cent water cut from May 30 when the water stock dipped below 10 per cent and a 10 per cent cut from June 52023 Even after using the reserved stock of lakes the stock was less than seven per cent in June As the rain was delayed the BMC imposed a 10 per cent cut from July 1 till August 22022 10 per cent water cut from June 28 to July 12 as stock dipped to 9 per cent2020 10 per water cut was imposed from August 5 to 29 due to poor rainfall20182019 10 per cent water cut from November 14 2018 to July 201920152016 20 per cent water cut was imposed in July and lasted until the next monsoon2014 20 per cent water cut from July to SeptemberWhatrsquos the issue in Bengaluru and DelhiBengaluru faced a shortage of 500 million litres of water every day in March which was about a fifth of the cityrsquos daily total demand Due to the severe water shortage the metro city witnessed its driest April in 41 years in 2024 It was an election issue too The situation isnrsquot normalised yet due to the delayed and weak monsoon Delhirsquos water supply plunged to its lowest this seasonmdasha 10 per cent shortfall from the targeted supplymdashaggravating nearly a fortnightlong crisis The AAPled Delhi government has blamed Haryana for the raw water supply shortfall an allegation the latterrsquos government has refuted saying the Delhi government was trying to hide lsquoits failuresrsquoAmple water storage and continuous supply of water was the USP of Mumbai The city was ahead of other big cities in the planning of new projects to improve water stock in accordance with daily needs As per a projected population of 1724 million in 2041 a 40 per cent increase from 2011 the corporation had planned to cater to a water demand of 5940 MLD To address the shortfall BMC planned the Gargai dam 440 MLD Pinjal dam 865 MLD and the DamangangaPinjal River link 1586 MLD by 2040 boosting water storage by 2891 MLD In addition a desalination plant which was projected as environmentally friendly was planned to create an additional supply of 400 MLD