BMC announces 20 per cent cut in water supply for Mumbai

The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai has announced a 20 per cent cut in water supply from midnight on Wednesday as it looks to cope with the crisis arising out of the "poor rainfall" received by the city in June.

"Our request to impose a 20 per cent water cut across Mumbai has been approved by the standing committee. This will be a time-bound water cut, which will last for a period of 10 days," Deputy Municipal Commissioner Ramesh Bambale told PTI.

Bambale added that the cut in the supply will be reviewed after 10 days and a fresh decision on it would be taken based on the amount of rainfall the island city receives in the next few days.

"We will be reviewing the situation every 10 days. Based on the level of water in the lakes that supply water to Mumbai, we will take a decision whether to continue with the cuts or not," Bambale added. An official said that MCGM has been advising the residents of Mumbai to use water sparingly and refrain from using potable water for other purposes.

"We have been cautioning citizens against wasting water. Water needs to be saved as much as possible at this time. We are not sure how the monsoon situation will pan out," the official said. As of on Tuesday, water in the seven major lakes which supply water to the city was 1.14 lakh million litres (enough to last for about 28 days) compared to 4,06,411 lakh million litres last year.

The city had faced a similar water crisis in July 2009, when a 30 per cent water cut was imposed. The cut in the supply back then was the maximum permitted by Mumbai's water supply network.