High-tide alert sounded

The civic body has asked people to keep away from sea beaches during high tides. The city will witness high tides measuring about 4.70 metre and above for the next four days until July 16.

The civic body has asked people to keep away from sea beaches during high tides.

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The city will witness high tides measuring about 4.70 metre and above for the next four days until July 16.

It it rains heavily this monsoon, there could be water logging in low-lying areas. On two occasions earlier this month, heavy rains led to waterlogging and traffic jams in the city.

This monsoon, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had decided to rope in firemen for beach safety measures. But the firemen have said that they are not trained for this task.

Last week, the firemen also staged a silent protest outside the Byculla Fire Brigade office.

Manisha Mhaiskar, additional municipal commissioner who is also in charge of the fire brigade department, said, “Firemen will do the job of lifeguards only for special high-tide days, which could be dangerous.”

“They will not stay on beaches for 365 days in a year but they will be deployed only on dangerous high-tide days, weekends and public holidays,” she added.

Mhaiskar said, “People should listen to lifeguards and volunteers of NGOs who are deployed on the beaches and enjoy high-tide but from the safe distance.”

The fire brigade is mulling to demarcate swimming and non-swimming zones for swimmers at the city’s beaches, similar to how it is in Goa.

It is in the process of mapping out safety and non-safety zones to avert incidents of drowning.

The department is taking help of Goa based Beach Safety Association and the Institute of Water Sports, Goa, who are working together on this project. In the last 24-hour Colaba witnessed 14.07 mm rainfall while Santacruz recorded 57 mm of rainfall.

The six lakes supplying water to the city also recorded satisfactory rainfall in the catchment areas. In the last 24-hour Modak Sagar recorded 31 mm rainfall, Tansa 60 mm, Vihar 69 mm, Tulsi 36 mm, Upper Vaitarna 22mm and Bhatsa 68 mm rainfall.