Daijiworld Media Network – Mumbai

Mumbai, Jul 22: Continuous monsoon rainfall has caused Tansa Lake, one of the seven reservoirs supplying drinking water to Greater Mumbai, to overflow on Wednesday morning, further improving the city's water reserves.

According to officials, the lake began overflowing at around 8.51 am, following which the gates of the Tansa Dam were opened to regulate the rising water level.

Tansa is one of Mumbai's major sources of drinking water and has a storage capacity of 14,508 crore litres. The overflow follows weeks of heavy rainfall across the reservoir's catchment areas.

The latest development has pushed the combined water stock in Mumbai's seven reservoirs to 8,95,907 million litres (ML), equivalent to 61.90 per cent of the total useful live storage capacity, according to the Hydraulic Engineer's Department at the Bhandup Complex.

The city's water reserves increased by 4.15 percentage points in the last 24 hours, rising from 57.75 per cent on Tuesday to 61.90 per cent on Wednesday due to sustained rainfall.

Among the reservoirs, Bhatsa, Mumbai's largest water source, recorded the highest rise in water level, increasing by 1.72 metres over the past day. The reservoir currently holds 4,10,644 ML, or 57.27 per cent of its useful storage capacity.

Upper Vaitarna recorded the highest rainfall in the past 24 hours with 224 mm, followed by Bhatsa (96 mm), Middle Vaitarna (71 mm), Tulsi (71 mm), Tansa (70 mm), Modak Sagar (67 mm) and Vihar (65 mm).

The combined storage of Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, Modak Sagar and Tansa has reached 4,49,519 ML, representing 64.72 per cent of their total live storage capacity.

Meanwhile, the Bhandup Complex received 52 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative seasonal rainfall to 2,006 mm.

Officials said Vihar Lake has been overflowing since July 7, while Tulsi Lake also began overflowing the same day, indicating strong monsoon inflows into Mumbai's water supply system.