Mumbai: Amid heavy rains, Powai Lake overflows

According to BMC officials, the stock in the seven reservoirs supplying water to the city is about 15 per cent at present, while it was over 18 per cent on July 5 last year.

A man pushes his scooter through a flooded street following heavy monsoon rains, in Mumbai. (File Photo | PTI)

MUMBAI: Mumbai's Powai Lake began overflowing on Tuesday evening amid heavy rains for the past couple of days, a civic official said.

The lake has a storage capacity of 545 crore litres and started overflowing at 6:15 pm, he added.

"However, water from the lake is not potable and is used for industrial purposes. It had overflown on June 12 last year. When the lake is full, the water area is around 2.23 square kilometres, while the catchment area is 6.61 square kilometres," he said.

Located some 27 kilometres from the BMC headquarters, Powai lake was built in 1890 at a cost of Rs 40 lakh. Seven reservoirs, namely Bhatsa, Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, Tansa, Modak Sagar, Vihar and Tulsi supply 385 crore litres of water to the megapolis.

According to BMC officials, the stock in the seven reservoirs supplying water to the city is about 15 per cent at present, while it was over 18 per cent on July 5 last year.

Incidentally, the civic body had imposed a 10 per cent water cut last month due to insufficient stock caused by deficient rainfall.