Mumbai, Aug 13 (Midday News): As the reservoirs supplying water to Mumbai have received copious rain this monsoon, city Mayor Snehal Ambekar has said that citizens will not have to face water cuts for a year.

"It gives me pleasure to announce that there has been sufficient rainfall in the catchment areas of our reservoirs and hence people will not have to face any water cut for a year," she told reporters at Modak Sagar reservoir in Thane district yesterday during her visit to the major dams and reservoirs to assess the water storage situation.

At present, the city gets 3,750 million litres per day (MLD) water everyday, even as the demand is more than 4,250 MLD. After good rainfall in the reservoirs, the city's civic body, on July 20, revoked the 20 per cent water cut that domestic, industrial and commercial set-ups was in force. Ambekar, however, has also urged people to make judicious use of water.

"Considering the past experience, we must not forget that sufficient water does not mean one should start using water in an injudicious way. We have to be extra careful," she said. According to Ambekar, the civic body is taking sufficient steps to harvest rainwater.

"For this, we are going to include all the stakeholders, be it society, developer or a common man. Promoting rain water harvesting is our priority," she said.

Apart from scanty rainfall, rapid growth in population in Greater Mumbai, huge water leakages due to faulty pipelines and illegal water connections, have been issues that the civic administration has been grappling with consistently.

Keeping in mind the city's burgeoning population and daily influx of thousands of migrants, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is gearing up to execute three big projects -- Gargai, Pinjal and Daman Ganga dams -- that can supply an additional water supply of almost 3000 million MLD by 2040.
Talking about these proposed projects, Ramesh Bhamble, chief engineer of BMC Hydraulic Department said, "Our efforts to execute the projects are on and tenders have been invited for drafting of DPR (detailed project report). As soon as we get a clearances, we will issue tenders for Gargai dam".

Currently, Mumbai's water supply comes from seven reservoirs or lakes that store rainwater collected during rainy season. These are -- Modak Sagar, Tansa Lake, Vihar Lake, Tulsi Lake, Upper Vaitarna, Bhatsa and Middle Vaitarna. Bhatsa and Upper Vaitarna come under state government's control, while the rest are managed and maintained by BMC.