M I T H I , M u m b a i

Mumbai booming population and rapidly expanding urban areas have exacted a huge toll on Mithi river, which is badly polluted and choked by development. The Mithi River is also known as “‘Mahim River”’. Over the decades, the river has been systematically ravaged by dumping of raw sewage, industrial waste, settlements along its banks, and governmental neglect. The Mithi river flows 18 km before draining at Mahim Bay and into the Arabian Sea and is a critical stormwater drain for Mumbai. One of the oldest rivers in Maharashtra, the Mithi is now nothing more than a sewage drain. The polluted river and the destruction of mangroves are cited as one of the primary reasons for 2005, the deluge in Mumbai. The government has spent crores of rupees on the Mithi river revival program, but the river still carries the highest amount of fecal coliform (FC) content — a bacterium found in human and animal feces. The fecal coliform content is almost 16 times the permissible levels for a river. According to the data collected in the first three months of 2018, fecal coliform content in Mithi river near the bridge was as high as 1,600/100 ml. The permissible limit is 100/100 ml, as per the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).The river flows through various slum clusters including Asia’s largest slum-Dharavi. Almost 70% of the river banks are occupied by lakhs of slum units from where domestic waste and even open defecation waste flows into the river.Moreover, several small-scale industries in these slum clusters pollute the river with their quite often toxic waste. The toxic chemical waste released by industries, along with the innumerable truckloads of debris being unloaded into the river, need to be severely dealt with. Even before that, the slum dwellers around the river must be rehabilitated somewhere close to their source of livelihoods and yet away from the river.