Mumbai enlists Japan's help to harvest rainwater

A suggestion to deal with the situation of waterlogging in Mumbai has come from Japan to make underground water tanks to store rainwater and then release it during low tide. This ambitious project of BMC is expected to get rid of water logging in Mumbai. The project has been already implemented in the city of Tokyo.

With a population of 90 lakh, Tokyo, located on the island of Honshu was graced with a long underground tunnel for mitigation measures during any kind of physical calamities. The cost of the project was a whopping 2 billion dollars. The tunnel releases water out of the city during natural disasters.

However, a tunnel will not be a better alternative measure for Mumbai as the city is surrounded by sea from three sides. Looking at all these things, there is the talk of constructing underground tanks inside the city itself. The BMC plans to build underground tanks to store rainwater in the grounds across all the 24 wards of the city. In addition to this, the civic body also plans to build a water tank at a large stretch of land at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BMC), the land is owned by the government.

Officials in the BMC also said that this water can later be released in the seawater during low tide and also used for other purposes like watering the plants and washing the roads. This will also help BMC save millions of litres of water which can, in turn, be utilised for other works.

However, the scheme has only been introduced as of now. Any talks regarding the implementation, duration and budget of the project will be too early to discuss.

—Zee Media Newsroom