Every small crisis cripples our city

Mumbai has never had a master plan for development. The city has grown to its present unmanageable proportions because of piecemeal development.

Chaotic construction in the past 30 years has led to the loss of our water bodies. Studies show that at least 30% of the streams seen on the older maps of Mumbai are now missing. Buildings and roads now take their place. Thus, rainwater does not have enough channels to drain through. It ends up on the roads and railway tracks, leading to waterlogging.

HT Image

The Chitale Committee, constituted after 26/7, had recommended the setting up of a hydrology cell to assess the impact of the city’s development on the drainage system. But this has not materialised so far.

The solution lies in not interfering with nature. Let us leave the streams that have survived the onslaught of urbanisation undisturbed. — V Subramanyan

We need an effective system to dispose of plastic
With the exception of rainwater, everything seems to flow into the city’s drains. Most drain openings are choked with plastic bags and garbage. Unless a proper disposal system for plastic waste is provided, this problem will persist. We need a close collaboration between civic agencies, the public and the private sector
in order to effectively implement these solutions. — Tanu Bhargava

City’s agencies are constantly fighting over jurisdiction

A combination of factors — inadequate infrastructure, ineffective management and public apathy — is responsible for our system’s inability to deal with crisis situations. This was apparent in this week’s downpour. With various agencies such as the BMC, MMRDA and the railways locked eternally over jurisdictional issues, the creation and maintenance of infrastructure has taken a beating. Add public apathy to this (a shocking 26% of the city’s population is not even aware of what BMC stands for, as revealed by a recent survey), and the recipe for disaster is complete. — NS Ajit Kumar