Conflicting Spaces

CONFLICTING SPACES

MITHI RIVER IMPACT OF THE RIVER ON DHARAVI

Introduction Mithi river in Mumbai city is a confluence of tailwater discharges of Powai and Vihar lakes.

The river originates at Powai and meets the Arabian sea at Mahim Creek flowing through residential and industrial complexes of Powai, Saki Naka, Kurla and Mahim over a distance of about 15 km. This river is treated as an open drain by the citizens who discharge raw sewage, industrial waste and garbage unchecked. Besides this, illegal activities of washing of oily drums, discharge of unauthorized hazardous waste are also carried out along the course of this river. The organic waste, sludge, and garbage dumping have reduced carrying capacity of the Mithi river. The water with a mixture of sewage and Industrial waste is a threat to marine life and the river is showing sign of total loss of such a support system. A preliminary survey indicates that pollution levels have reached an alarming stage.

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Fortress of Slums

The river flows through various slum clusters including Asia’s largest slum—Dharavi. Almost 70% of the river banks are occupied by lakhs of slum units from where domestic waste and even open defecation waste flows into the river. Moreover, several small-scale industries in these slum clusters pollute the river with their quite often toxic waste.

The toxic chemical waste released by industries, along with the innumerable truckloads of debris being unloaded into the river, need to be severely dealt with.

Even before that, the slum dwellers around the river must be rehabilitated somewhere close to their source of livelihoods and yet away from the river. Unless they stop pouring waste into the river on a daily basis, the possibility of the river getting cleaned up is remote.

The authorities need to create a zero-tolerance zone along both sides of the river.

Obviously, these slum dwellers, along with the agencies that control them and the industries they work in, represent a powerful vote bank. This can explain why the most important steps towards cleaning up the river - that of relocating slum dwellers and shutting down the polluting industries - represent an almost insurmountable challenge.

It is not an impossible task—but like everything else in Mumbai today, it can only happen with a concerted political will.

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HIGHLIGHTS ●

According to the latest water quality tests done by the Maharashtra Pollution Control board (MPCB), there is a slight improvement in the quality of seawater at the Gateway of India, Thane creek, Juhu Beach, Dadar Chowpatty, and Girgaum Chowpatty.

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The water samples collected from these places are now in the "non-polluted" category.

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Water samples were collected from 12 locations -- Versova, Worli, Nariman Point, Malabar Hill, Haji Ali, Mahim creek, Gateway of India, Thane creek, Juhu Beach, Dadar Chowpatty, Girgaum Chowpatty, and Mithi river.

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Out of these 12 places, seven points -- Versova, Worli, Nariman Point, Malabar Hill, Haji Ali, Mahim creek and Mithi river -- continue to be in the "polluted" category.

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The Mithi river which passes through the heart of Mumbai to discharge the water into Mahim creek is in the "highly polluted" category. What is shocking is that even though the government has spent crores of rupees on the Mithi river revival program, the river still carries the highest amount of fecal coliform (FC) content -- a bacterium found in human and animal feces.

CAUSE: ●

The fecal coliform content is almost 16 times the permissible levels for a river. After the floods in Mumbai in 2005, the state government instituted the Mithi River Development and Protection Authority (MRDPA). According to the authorities, most of the amount has been spent in deepening and widening of the river. About 95 percent of this work has been done, along with concretization of the retaining walls around the entire length of the river.If you ever thought this will make the river pristine then that's not really happening here.

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ACTION TAKEN: ●

The MPCB had disconnected water and electricity connections to over 200 industrial and manufacturing units around the river as part of its program to curtail the pollution in the river. This has helped decrease the industrial waste that was flowing into the river.

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Mumbai is also planning to install a few sewage treatment plants (STPs) by 2023 but that will still not cover the entire city. Presently, there are seven STPs that are planned by BMC.

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"Sixty percent of the city lives in a slum and unauthorized constructions that are not connected to the formal sewage lines. The city has to have smaller sewage treatment plants installed for localized areas so that no sewage goes to the rivers without getting treated. If the authorities want to do it, then they can," said Gopal Zaveri from River March, an organization working towards rejuvenation of river bodies.

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Bibliography: https://issuu.com/gsapponline/docs/dharavi-web-preview2/29 https://595informalsettlements.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/dharavi-and-its-effect-on-mithi -river-and-mumbais-watershed/ https://scroll.in/roving/750928/the-story-of-mumbais-abused-polluted-mithi-river-is-anythin g-but-sweet https://www.thequint.com/explainers/mumbai-mithi-river-pollution-problem-explain

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