With almost no rain in the catchment areas, BMC officials will request big organisers to use less water for celebration this year
With almost no rain in the catchment areas, BMC officials will request big organisers to use less water for celebration this year
With no rains in the past one week, the BMC wants to ensure that water is not wasted to celebrate dahi handi on August 14.
Officials will meet with big organisers soon to request them to drastically reduce water usage, including tankers, on that day.
ADVERTISEMENT
Most dahi handi mandals use water sprinklers, which increases the demand for water tankers. "We will be talking to the mandals on a ward level.
u00a0
Consider that each tanker has a capacity to store over 12,000 litres of water, the wastage is humongous," said an official from the BMC's hydraulic department.
Where's the water?
The water situation is grave considering that water levels at the Modak Sagar dam, which had overflowed on July 24, are dropping.
"We have water only for 193 days from the Modak Sagar, Tansa and Upper Vaitarna dams. And 172 days of water from Bhatsa sam, which supplies water to the eastern suburbs.
To sustain water supply needs till next summer we need to have 250 days water supply from October," said another BMC official.
Confirming the move, Pramod Charanker, deputy municipal commissioner, said, "We will be discussing the issue in our review meeting on Wednesday."
And the dahi handi celebrations are not helping. With a prize money that usually runs into lakhs and the height of handi crossing over 20 feet, the usage of water every time a pyramid attempts to break the handi runs into thousands of litres of water.
A dahi handi organiser from Currey Road claimed that last year they ordered two tankers within a span of just four hours. Each tanker cost them Rs 700.
u00a0
On a normal day, a water tanker costs between Rs 700 and Rs 900. But for dahi handi, the prices are hiked by at least Rs 200, excluding the waiting charge of Rs 200 per hour.
Ravi Rangnekar, manager of Laxmi Krupa water supplier at Mahim, who supplies water tankers to Mahim, Byculla, BKC and Khar, said, "Last year, we got only five orders, but this year we got 12 because of the water cut."
Water level (in metres)
|
Lake |
Full supply Level |
Lowest drawable level |
Yesterday's level |
This time last year |
|
Modak Sagar |
163.15 |
143.26 |
162.80 |
163.16 |
|
Tansa |
128.63 |
118.87 |
125.48 |
127.10 |
|
Vihar |
80.12 |
73.92 |
75.80 |
78.63 |
|
Tulsi |
139.17 |
131.07 |
137.12 |
139.21 |
|
Upper Vaitarna |
603.51 |
595.13 |
599.00 |
599.64 |
|
Bhatsa |
142.07 |
100.00 |
126.20 |
122.95 |
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
