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Powai
Lake
Powai
Lake
is
located
downstream
of
the Vihar
Lake on
the Mithi
River
When
it
was
built,
the
lake
had
an
area
of
about
2.1
square
kilometres
(520
acres)
and
the
depth
varied
from
about
3
metres
(9.8 ft)
(at
the
periphery)
to
12
metres
(39 ft)
at
its
deepest.
The
Powai
Lake
has
gone
through
many
stages
of
water
quality
degradation.
The
lake
water
which
used
to
supply
drinking
water
for
Mumbai
has
been
declared
unfit
to
drink.
The
lake
remains
a tourist
attraction.
Before
the
lake
was
built
by
the British,
in
1799 AD,
the
estate
where
the
lake
is
now
was
leased
on
a
yearly
rent
to
Dr.
Scott.
After
his
death
in
1816,
the
government
took
control
of
the
estate
in
1826
and
leased
it
to
Framaji
Kavasji,
then
the
vice-president
of
the
Agricultural
and
Horticultural
Society
of
Western
India[4] after
whom
the
lake
was
named
when
it
was
built
in
1891.
A
stream
tributary
of
the Mithi
river,
which
served
the
Powai
village's
water
needs,
was
dammed
in
1891,
during
the
British
period.
It
was
initially
to
augment
water
supply
to
Bombay
city
(now
called
Mumbai),
by
constructing
two
dams
of
10
m
to
store
the
rain
water
flowing
from
the
lower
slopes
of
the
Western
Ghats
and
streams
from
the
eastern
and
northeastern
slopes
of
hills.
It
was
planned
as
an
antiwater
famine
measure,
to
the
southeast
of Vihar
Lake (a
much
larger
lake)
also
for
water
supply
to
Mumbai
city.The
scheme
was
taken
in
hand
in
1889.
Though
it
was
completed
within
a
year
at
an
initial
cost
of
more
than
Rs.
6,50,000
and
started
providing
two
million
gallons
of
water
per
day,
it
had
to
be
abandoned
due
to
the
hue
and
cry
against
the
quality
of
the
water.
Five
lakhs
of
rupees
more
were
spent
on
the
scheme
in
1919
in
an
attempt
to
restore
the
supply
at
least
for
the
suburbs
but
this,
too,
was
given
up
with
the
development
of
the
Tansa
works.
After
the
drinking
water
supply
objective
was
abandoned
in
the
early
1890s,
in
view
of
poor
quality
of
the
water
due
to
pollution, water
hyacinth and weeds,
untreated
sewage
and
large
silt
deposit,
the
lake
was
leased
to
the
Western
India
Fishing
Association,
a quasi
government
organisation,
who
used
it
for
fish
culture
and angling.
Later,
the
Bombay
Presidency
Angling
Association
was
formed
in
1936.
In
1955,
under
the
Societies
Registration
Act
1860,
it
was
registered
as
the
Maharashtra
State
Angling
Association
(MSAA)
and
the
lake
is
now
under
their
control.
Realising
the
gravity
of
the
environmental
pollution,
the
MSAA
has
revised
its
constitution
"to
actively
care
for,
clean,
develop,
maintain,
and
beautify
the
Environment
at
Powai
Lake."
MSAA
is
now
involved
with
removal
of
water
hyacinth
infestation
supporting
research
with
Fisheries
Department
for
conservation
of
the
Indian mahaseer
Panorama
of
Powai
Lake,
seen
from
the
campus
of IIT
Bombay
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