Waste spillage may spoil all efforts

Civic authorities have not taken notice of illegal scrap dealers encroaching the banks

The BMC and MMRDA’s Mithi River Development Project (MRDP) could go down the drain due to some scrap dealers and godowns encroaching at the Mithi river bank. There is a threat of spillage of waste into the river that causes the river to overflow during monsoons.

After the 26/7 deluge two years ago in Mumbai, an action plan was immediately formed and Rs1, 300 crore was sanctioned to BMC and MMRDA for the project. However the implementation of this plan has been moving at a snails pace. The State Government and civic authorities’ efforts have proved to be cosmetic touch ups at solving the Mithi river problem, claim residents and social activists.

People working in the godowns also dump garbage and other waste materials into the river, eye witnesses said, yet the civic authorities have not paid any attention to the issue. An official from MMRDA’s Resettlement & Rehabilitation department told DNA, “These godowns and other commercial encroachments would only be cleared after the monsoon as the authorised commercial structure will have to be rehabilitated and the illegal ones will be cleared.”

“We fear the flooding of the river even this year causing problems in the nearby areas due to the dirty and contaminated water of Mithi.” said Jitendra Gupta, resident and social activist. He added, “Many of the occupants that were cleared last year have reoccupied the area, but the authorities are doing nothing about it. Also the godown units pollute the area by throwing waste in the river. Even the disaster of 26/7 deluge has failed to wake up the authorities.”