Mumbai, April 25 -- The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started the process to desilt its drinking water lakes, with surveys underway to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) and assess feasibility, guardian minister Ashish Shelar said on Thursday. For its daily water supply, the city depends on seven reservoirs: Vihar, Tulsi, Tansa, Modak Sagar, Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna and Bhatsa. These sources provide around 4,000 MLD against a demand of 4,505 MLD. None of the lakes have been desilted so far, raising concerns about reduced storage capacity over time. A 2022 report on the National Framework on Sediment Management says sediment build-up reduces reservoir efficiency. While Right to Information responses filed by activists like B N Kumar, director of NatConnect, show that city's drinking water lakes have not been desilted for about ten years, an official in the know said desilting has never been attempted on the city's lakes due to a lack of technical expertise and procedural approvals required from multiple authorities....