Mumbai rains: Tulsi lake, which supplies drinking water to the metropolis, overflows

The Tulsi lake, one of the seven reservoirs supplying drinking water to Mumbai, overflowed on Thursday following heavy rains in the city and suburbs, a civic official said. Earlier this month, the Powai lake, another reservoir located in the heart of Mumbai, started overflowing, but its water is not used for drinking purpose.

The Tulsi lake, located in the densely forested Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), started overflowing at 1.25 am on Thursday, the official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.

This is expected to bring relief to citizens facing 10% water cut since the beginning of this month.

Tulsi is the smallest of the seven reservoirs that supply potable water to Mumbai and has a storage capacity of 8,046 million litres. The city gets 18 million litres of water from the lake every day.

"The catchment area of the lake has been receiving rainfall in the last few days, as a result of which the lake overflowed today," the civic official said, adding the water body has overflowed a little earlier this year compared to 2022.

When the Tulsi lake overflows, its water goes into the Vihar lake, which is also located in the SGNP.

Apart from Tulsi and Vihar, the city receives water from Bhatsa, Tansa, Lower and Middle Vaitarna reservoirs all located in Thane district, and Upper Vaitarna dam located in Nashik district.