MUMBAI: Mumbai remained under an orange alert for the third consecutive day on Thursday, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasting heavy to very heavy rainfall at a few places along with gusty winds of 60-70kmph.Neighbouring Palghar continued under a red alert, while Thane also remained under an orange alert.Despite the warning, rainfall within Mumbai was moderate compared with other parts of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).In the 24 hours ending 8.30am Thursday, the IMD’s Santacruz observatory recorded 63.6 mm of rainfall, while Colaba received 22.2mm. Thane recorded 99.32mm and Navi Mumbai 56.87mm.The heaviest rainfall was reported from Palghar district, where several areas received triple-digit rainfall.Jawhar topped the chart with 274mm, followed by Palghar (254mm), Wada (166mm) and Vasai (102mm) in the 24 hours ending Thursday morning. The IMD has forecast extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places in the district.Within Vasai taluka, Agashi (Virar West) recorded 123mm, Bolinj (Virar) 104mm, Kaman 101mm, Manikpur (Vasai West) 98mm, Mandvi 74mm, and Pelhar (Vasai East) 70mm.The fresh spell of rainfall significantly boosted water reserves in the seven lakes supplying Mumbai, with live storage rising to 70% of capacity, an increase of nearly 8% points in a single day.Modak Sagar became the fourth lake to overflow this monsoon after reaching its full supply level at around 2am on Thursday.The lake supplies 440 million litres per day (MLD) of water to Mumbai.Mumbai receives 4,100 million litres of water per day (MLD) from seven lakes, Modak Sagar, Bhatsa, Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, Vihar, Tulsi and Tansa.To meet the city’s annual water requirement, the reservoirs need a combined storage of 14.47 lakh million litres.
