Ponda: The Mhaisal dam began overflowing at around 5 am on Monday, with water spilling through its side-channel spillway. According to the water resources department (WRD), this is the first time since 2009 that the dam has brimmed so late in the season.WRD deputy chief engineer Ankush Gaonkar said the delayed overflow is due to this year’s monsoon deficit. He attributed the lag to sparse rainfall in June.Gaonkar said the spill is expected to continue until Oct, depending on rainfall intensity across the dam’s catchment area. The excess water flows into a stream and is used for irrigation.Located in Panchawadi village, the relatively less-visited dam supplies drinking water to Panchawadi and Shiroda. The 230m-long structure has a full reservoir level of 22m and live storage capacity of 436.81 hectare metre (HaM). Its catchment area is comparatively small, spread over 4.13sqkm.About 10 to 15MLD are drawn and treated at a 10 MLD water treatment plant run by the department of drinking water (DDW) on the hill at Gawaliwada above Panchawadi. Treated water is supplied to the villages for drinking, while the remaining water is used for irrigation.The dam last faced a critical situation in the summer of 2022, when storage fell to 0.9% and the WRD had to collect water from pits formed in the drying reservoir, using floating pumps to draw remaining supplies.
