Nature’s caring, civic body isn’t

Cringe, cajole, castigate - some people are beyond redemption. Our Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) qualifies for this category? You bet. The city is verily exasperated.

First, BMC blames the rain Gods for three consecutive years of dry spells and finds it a convenient conduit to impose 15% water cut on Mumbaikars.

Then, when the gods, tired of being branded villain, eventually open the water gates giving the megapolis adequate rain, the civic authorities are caught gasping, blaming the gods again for such voracious downpour, even stoking the fears of another repeat of 26/7.

I am speechless. Are the gods on BMC’s payrolls, cavorting to its wishes, while it dozes off in the realms of inefficiency. The monsoon this time has thrown up an irony which has put Mumbaikars - poor we - in a quandary.

On the one hand, nature’s munificence has greeted a parched city with water stock of all lakes crossing the previous year’s mark. However, officials said it was too early to rejoice, as the useful content is still short of the requisite amount necessary to take a call on lifting the water cut, a review of which is scheduled for July 15.

Which is to say that more showers are needed this month.
Here’s where the irony lies. While showers are being sought, the city is overflowing, already, with nullahs blocked and sewage sprouting on streets. The city, since its very first showers in June, has been witnessing waterlogging. Now, with constant downpour for days on end, commuters are harried as they face regular traffic bottlenecks at places near CST, Churchgate, Hutatma Chowk, Worli, Eastern Express Highway, Western Express Highway, SV Road and LBS Marg, all strategic points which connect most workplaces. Not to speak of the diseases - dengue, malaria and gastroenteritis.

Speak of choosing between the devil and the deep sea. Here we are, praying for more rain to overcome water scarcity and wanting it to stop and not inconvenience us in our daily grind, both in one breath. The question is, who is responsible?

What emerged of all the brouhaha over de-silting to unclog the city’s important nullah networks? To what end has the purported Rs70 crore been spent in this regard? Chronic waterlogging spots remain as clogged as ever and little wonder, the spectre of 26/7 stalks us five years on.

The civic corporation though has some nerve mentioning 26/7. It has failed to set things right after the ghastly experience.

Fear lives on. And in talking of yore, it exposes its own chinks: failure on cleaning front and a lost opportunity to store rainwater as a possible source to do away with scarcity. Rainwater harvesting is an initiative taken up in limited measures by some housing societies in Mumbai and Thane. All the state needed to do was to support the effort and convert it into a movement.

What it’s done instead is lapse into a cocoon of blame game and self-pity, leaving us in a pitiable state. All talk about monsoon preparedness has gone up in smoke. To think we are tolerating all this. What do these people think we are? Hey, wake up before we are roused.