Late Monsoon Captures Mumbai Again

 Late Monsoon Captures Mumbai Again

Today overnight rain halted the life of Mumbai. This is not the first time this happened to Mumbai. Rather than this is new normal to Mumbaikers because they see this every year. I think Mumbai is not awake from the horrors of 26th July 2005. You all might think it’s 16 years ago and now we are way beyond it. From Nokia 1100 to iPhone 12 we all are now ahead of life. Well, you might be ahead but your Drainage System is not. Mumbai has a British-era Drainage System. Yes, you read it right. It is not from the previous government or some party’s work. So now you have to blame the British for this. Mumbai’s drainage system is built-in 1860. From that period there has been a small improvement in the drainage system over the years but it is still based on the British-era, This drainage system is designed to carry 25 mm of rainfall. But Mumbai received 253.4 mm of rainfall till 8:30 am on Friday, 16th August 2021. It is 10 times more than the capacity of the drainage system. As of this waterlogging was reported in many suburbs. Milan Subway is a famous spot for waterlogging. If you want to visit it this monsoon, it is near Santacruz.

                                                                                                                  (Via:- Wikimedia)

• The Mumbai Drainage System

I have been writing about the drainage system so you might wonder what it is really. So here are some details of this famous antic drainage system.

Mumbai Drainage System is a 400 km underground drainage system. Mumbai Drainage System has 287 nallah in it. In this 287, 200 are major nallah and 87 minor nallah. The difference between major and minor nallah is, major nallah has a width of more than 1.5 meters and minor have a width less than 1.5 meters. As the study showed this drainage system is heavily based on Roadside Open Drains. There are a total of 1,987 Roadside Open Drains. The nallah and open drains need cleaning regularly but what Bmc does is clean them before the monsoon. Bot what about after the monsoon? Not just BMC but all the citizens are equally responsible for all this. You cannot point fingers at others if you are sitting in your home having a nice cup of tea and talking about this situation by watching news debates from some news channel. There have been many initiatives taken by BMC but the waterlogging is like some trashy Indian Serials which kept coming back years by years.

• Mithi River:- Saviour or Destroyer

Mithi river was heavily criticized by all the people in 2005. All the people say even for today that doe to mithi river 26th July occurred. So just take look at the mithi river.

Mithi river is originated from the Vihar Lake. Vihar lake is in the Vihar Village in the precincts of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Borivali. Mithi river is expanded till Bandra-Kurla Complex and then it meets to the Arabian Sea at Mahim bay. The river has an entire area of 13.75 km.

What is the importance of the Mithi River?

1. Mithi river divides the Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburbs. If the mithi river floods it affects the Lifeline of Mumbai. It affects Western, Central, and Harbour railways significantly.

2. The major reason for the flooding of the mithi river is the disturbance in its catchment area. Storage processing industries, workshops, and scrap yards disturb the drainage system which results in flooding.

3.BMC tried BRIMSTOWAD Project to improve the stormwater drainage system in the mithi river but it has remained unimplanted. As always all the people, politicians, and news journalists are concerned for the Mithi.

4. Mithi river is used as a sewer for years and has made it polluted. Just imagine if it would have been kept clean and healthy. People might have a river to go fishing, boating, and swimming.

• The role of BMC

BMC pumped 17,145 million liters of water from Mumbai last year. To see how much Mumbai is raining and how much stressed it is putting on BMC. As reported, BMC is planning on underground ponds to store the excess rainwater like Tokyo, South Korea. The people who live in Mumbai know how much space Mumbai has. Ths 17,145 million liters of water needs to go somewhere. It cannot be going into residential areas so this needs rock-solid planning. Last

year BMC appointed a consultant for Mumbai to find the permanent solution to waterlogging. This consultant studied Hindmata, Gandhi Market (Matuga), Chaenbur Colony, and Andheri Subway. I wonder what he did but all the situation is somewhat the same. They found the solution but it is not a permanent solution. BMC’s Storm Water Department has spent 2,903 Crores on cleaning and repairing nallah and manholes, widening of nallah, etc. in between 2016 to 2019. So this needs to be looked at seriously. The slum area in Mumbai is another reason for the flooding. If I start to write on it it will not be completed. But BMC needs to work on a plan to develop these areas and making them healthy.

• The Role of Citizens

The role of citizens in this type of calamity is more than we all think. Citizens still throw garbage on the streets instead of the dust bin. People still use polythene plastics carry bags and throws them here and there. This threw plastic helps in waterlogging (great contribution to society). If every citizen follows rules then not only waterlogging but we can also prevent the third wave of coronavirus(COVID-19). If someone is crossing the line then we must stop them. This will make the world a heaven for sure. Yes. Of course, that person needs to listen to you or they will just say,”Jaana apna kam kar”.

These are some of the photos that I have taken from the Santacruz near the Aiport Colony. Special thanks to my friends Yadnik and Arya for helping me taking the photos. (These are not today's photos)

You can see how much waterlogging is there. Some children are playing in that water. 

How many diseases are they are going to get by this thrill? Why are they even swimming in that water? How is this much waterlogged into that area? What was the authority doing when this happened?

We need to give answers to these questions by ourselves.

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So until next time, SAYONARA.