Residents of Mumbai to face water cuts round-the-year

Published: Sun 4 Oct 2015, 7:28 PM

With the withdrawal of the southwest monsoon, Mumbai is staring at a water shortage for the next nine months as water levels in the lakes have still not reached comfortable levels.
The Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC), which has already enforced a 20 per cent cut in supplies, has warned that the shortage is here to stay till June next year. The current water stock in the seven lakes that supply water to the metropolis is 1.15 trillion litres, as against a normal of 1.4 trillion litres.
The civic body expects this to last till June. The southwest monsoon usually sets over Mumbai and coastal Maharashtra by June 10. The BMC supplies 3,750 million litres of water daily to the city and the suburbs from the seven large lakes around the metropolis. Though the total supply is inadequate for the city's needs, the BMC claims that Mumbai has among the highest per capita water supplies anywhere in the world. According to the civic body, it supplies 240 litres per person per day in Mumbai, whereas the per capita figure in cities such as New York, London and Singapore is much less.
India's financial and commercial capital has much better water and electricity supplies than most other cities in the country. In fact, this will be the first time since 2009 when the city will be facing a water cut round-the-year.

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Published: Sun 4 Oct 2015, 7:28 PM

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