Shaken by the current water crisis, BMC moves to increase storage capacity of Tansa reservoir by a foot which means 11 more days of water for large chunks of Mumbai
Shaken by the current water crisis, BMC moves to increase storage capacity of Tansa reservoir by a foot which means 11 more days of water for large chunks of Mumbai
Desperate times call for innovative measures. And that is exactly what the city's current water crisis has prompted the authorities to do.
The BMC is considering increasing the storage capacity of Tansa dam by a foot.
Tansa supplies 550 million litres daily (MLD) of water to Mumbai's western suburbs from Bandra to Dahisar, and parts of south Mumbai.
Raising its height by only a foot is expected to increase its yearly water stock by 6,000 million litres. This water can meet the needs of these areas for 11 days.
As per the proposal, the present height, or the Full Reservoir Level (FRL), of 128.63 m should be increased by one foot by moving the spillway gates to a greater height.
Since the dam is over a century old and has already been repaired twice, they can't afford to add to its height.
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The only way to increase capacity is to raise the height of the spillway shutters, say civic officials, who are being very cautious. A detailed study has to be carried out before the implementation, added a senior official.
"Tansa has 38 automatic shutter gates and has a 579 m long spillway.
So, it will be a Herculean task to implement this project", said former deputy municipal commissioner (environment) Prakash Sanglikar, who envisaged the project.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Anil Diggikar said, "Discussions on how we can carry the proposal forward will take place in a meeting with Municipal Commissioner Dr Jairaj Phatak this week.
Once the proposal is passed, it will be sent to the Central Designs Organisation (CDO), Water Resources Department of the State Government, for approval."
More dams?
According to civic officials, the BMC is finding it difficult to meet Mumbai's demand for water, which is increasing tremendously every year.
Though the civic body is planning to add more dams like Pinjal and Gargai, they will take a long time for completion. Meanwhile, they say, it is necessary to increase the storage capacity of existing dams.
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They, however, remained non-committal on whether this would be replicated in the other dams that supply water to Mumbai.
Rs 10 cr
The estimated cost of the project
The Shortage
Mumbai is rainfall deficient by 21 per cent at the moment. In real terms, this means every Mumbai family gets 60 litres less than their daily requirement.
A family of four uses about 360 litres of water every day.
The BMC may increase water cuts by another 10 per cent, taking it to 25 per cent in the coming weeks because of the shortfall.
Did you know?
Tansa dam is 113 years old
Tansa at a glance
Commissioned in: 1893 (built in stages)
Finished in: 1948
Catchment area: 133 sq km
FRL: 128.63 m
Storage capacity: 1,84,600 million litres
Length of spillway: 579 m
No of spillway gates: 38
Size of gates: 50'x4'
Avg annual rainfall: 236.3 cm
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