Mula river ‘wasted’, get set for flash floods this monsoon

The ongoing dumping at both sides of the Mula river near the newly inaugurated Ambedkar Bridge in Baner has filled the residents with apprehension and dread. Their fear can be well understood given the fact that they were worst hit during the flash floods of 2010.

Resident and member of Baner Area Sabha, Anupam Saraph, while speaking about the dumping, said, “On both the Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad side of the bridge, dumping of debris have reduced the width of the river. This obstruction to the free flow of water would result in flash floods during the monsoon,” he said.
The issue of disposal of construction debris has been a burning one with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) for the past several months. However, the PMC does not have any fixed plan or site in place. Suresh Jagtap, zonal commissioner (IV), confided that construction debris is mostly dumped at low lying areas of gardens to develop them properly.

He also said that for this purpose, the civic body is supposed to spend Rs100 crore per year. “Every day Pune city produces around 75-100 metric tonnes of construction debris,” Jagtap said.
“We had plans to take the debris to the land fill site of Urali Devachi. However, given the distance and the high cost of transportation, no one does that,” he added.

In absence of a clear cut dumping site, Jagtap said that illegal dumping is happening in various parts of the city. When asked about the number of people fined for such activities, he said that last year around 6 people were fined. “By the time we reached the spot, the culprits had vanished,” he said.

The 2010 flash floods was caused due to illegal dumping on the water courses of the city. Post the floods, the civic body had undertaken a major cleaning drive of the water courses.
When asked about the state of the water courses and the allegations of dumping on them, Jagtap stated that the dumping of construction debris on the water courses have been curbed by the civic body. “We have maintained 24 hours security on the lonely sites where maximum dumping used to take place,” he said.

Jagtap’s claims were questioned by activist Vijay Kumbhar, who claimed that the civic body’s attitude has been very lax. “Contrary to the claims made by the civic officials, illegal dumping of debris is still continuing on water ways and river sides,” he said.

Kumbhar also blamed the civic officials for not coming up with a viable solution for the problem of construction debris on a permanent basis. “Pune is surrounded by unused stone quarries. They can be used to dump construction debris on a permanent basis,” he added.