From El Niño fears to 3-year high: How July rains saved Mumbai’s water supply

3 min readMumbaiJul 28, 2026 12:32 PM IST The Vihar Lake, one of the seven reservoirs supplying water to Mumbai (Express photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee). Despite an initial delay in the monsoon onset due to El Niño conditions, water levels in the seven lakes supplying Mumbai reached a three-year high Tuesday morning. Combined useful content in the reservoirs stood at 88.81 per cent, or 12.85 lakh million litres against a total capacity of 14.47 lakh million litres. On July 28, 2025, lake levels stood marginally lower at 88.70 per cent, while on the same date in 2024, the stock was at 72.97 per cent. An island city, Mumbai relies on seven reservoirs for its year-round water supply: Tulsi, Vihar, Bhatsa, Tansa, Modak Sagar, Upper Vaitarna, and Middle Vaitarna. These lakes are spread across sub