Mumbai: 15 years after 26/7 deluge, more drains but new flood spots too

MUMBAI: Since 2005, the monsoon has become the most stressful time of the year for Aarti Bidkar. Fifteen years ago, floods swamped her ground-floor flat in Andheri, destroying everything. In last week’s rain, too, the water came up to the steps of her building entrance. “I’m worried all the time,” she said.

Municipal authorities, though, say much has improved since the 26/7 deluge.Several recommendations of the Madhav Chitale Committee have been implemented, said P Velarasu, additional municipal commissioner (projects), although some issues remain. These include the perennial flooding of Hindmata at Dadar. Officials now plan a suction pump to drain the water faster. Culverts under the railway lines are another problem—the Khar, Andheri and Malad subways flood every time there is a downpour. “The railways need to increase the height of the columns on which the lines run,” said Velrasu, adding the BMC may build a parallel tunnel.
A key recommendation was to ease the flow of the rivers. The BMC has finished much of the river widening and deepening work, as well as construction of retaining walls along the Mithi river. Its focus now is on pollution—-a Rs 400 crore tender will be issued to build sewage treatment plants and service roads for three rivers. For Mithi, a shaft has been proposed on the Safed Pool at Kranti Nagar from where a tunnel will run to the Dharavi pumping station, said Velrasu.
The construction of the walls and the creation of holding ponds on the Mithi have helped reduce flooding at the CSIA airport, said IIT-Bombay professor Kapil Gupta. Mumbai weather data and rain alerts are now readily available on mobile apps, he added. “The information system has improved but due to new constructions in some areas, new flooding hotspots have come up.”
The larger issue of ecologically sound land use planning and building regulation remains unaddressed, say others. The committee’s recommendation to demarcate flood risk zones and regulate development within those zones has not happened, for instance. D Stalin, director of the NGO Vanashakti, said government agencies have essentially converted the committee’s recommendations into contracts for concretizing drain beds and constructing walls. “The BMC sets up pumps to throw water out,” he said, “But where do you throw the water when the entire area is flooded and the sea keeps bringing it back in?”
Janak Daftary of Jal Biradari, who filed a PIL on the Mithi, noted the Supreme Court-appointed expert committee had recommended removing some of the retaining walls. “If the city is to be saved from floods, then water must be allowed to percolate,” he said. “Retaining walls and pumping stations are not the solution.”