MITHI RIVER POLLUTION

BY- SHUBHAM, ATHARVA, RIDDHI AND NEHA

 INTRODUCTION
• THE MITHI RIVER IS A SEWER ON SALSETTE ISLAND, THE ISLAND OF CITY OF
MUMBAI, INDIA. IT IS A CONFLUENCE OF TAIL WATER DISCHARGES OF THE POWAI
AND THE VIHAR LAKES. THE SEWER IS SEASONAL AND RISES DURING THE
MONSOONS. THE OVER-FLOWING LAKES ALSO CONTRIBUTE TO THE SEWER FLOW
WHICH IS STOPPED BY DAM IN OTHER TIMES.
• THE SEWER ORIGINATES FROM THE OVERFLOW OF VIHAR LAKE AND ALSO
RECEIVES THE OVERFLOW FROM THE POWAI LAKE ABOUT 2KM LATER. IT FLOWS
FOR A TOTAL OF 17.83 KM BEFORE IT MEETS THE ARABIAN SEA AT MAHIM CREEK
AND HAS A CATCHMENT AREA OF 7295 HECTARES. IT FLOWS THROUGH THE
RESIDENTIAL AND INDUSTRIAL COMPLEXES OF POWAI, SAKINAKA, KURLA, KALINA,
BKC, DHARAVI AND MAHIM. AFTER THE INCIDENT OF THE 26TH JULY 2005 DELUGE, IT
HAS BECOME VERY IMPORTANT TO LOOK AFTER THE MITHI RIVER.
RECLAIMATION OF MITHI RIVER

• Land reclamation, usually known reclamation and also known land fill is the process of
creating new land from ocean, river beds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as
Reclamation Ground or Land Fill. Large part of Mumbai was built on reclaimed land, making
it the Mumbai today.
• The 7 islands namely Kolaba, Bombay, Old women’s Island, Mazagaon, Worlee, Mahim and
parel were brought together by doing reclamation and present financial capital of our
country Mumbai was formed.
• The highest number of land reclamations took place in the past 40 years in the city’s more
than 300 years of history of reclamations. The study shows that while the total built-up area
of the city in 1970’s was 195.01 sq.km against the total area of 632.6 sq.km,
• It shot up to 338.38 sq.km in the 1990’s and 385.67 sq.km in 2011. This caused the
unprecedented loss of natural landscape due to land use change in favour of built-up area
for urban use, created after eating-up more than 50% of Mumbai’s beaches lakes, vegetated
islets hillocks, inter-tidal zones and mangrooves.
PROBLEMS OCCURRED DUE TO RECLAIMATION
MEASURES TAKEN BY GOVERNMENT

• Rs6.97 crore plan undertaken by MMRDA which involves removal of foul smell and preventing
breeding of mosquitoes on the polluted river and Vakola naka. This project was been advised
by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute.
• The project intends to improve qualitative parameters of mithi waters (eg:- DO, BOD & COD)
which are generally responsible for degradation of any waterbody.
• The technology is based on the bioremediation measures to remove the pollutants which are
basically organic in nature from the polluted water. In this Project odour control is being
carried out through bioremediation by adding a live Bacteria namely Persnickety-713
proportionately to the sewage discharged in to the river on a daily basis.
• After 26th July 2005, Rs1057crores have been spent on mithi river Cleaning
& Development by MMRDA and MCGM. The New Dead line of Mithi River
Project to be completed was 1st April 2017. Earlier deadline was December
2010 which extended 3 times.
• The Central Government has not spent a single penny till date. This was
revealed in a RTI query filed by Athak Seva Sangh Chairman & RTI Activists
Anil Galgali from MMRDA & MCGM. Now Galgali moves to Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and urges him to clear Rs1657.11 crores fund to MMRDA for
the Rejuvenation of Mithi River.
DAMAGE CAUSED BY THE FLOODING OF MITHI
RIVER
The 26th July 2005 flood was a major disaster that occurred because of Mithi
River. A survey says that:-
• 52 local trains were damaged.
• 37,000 autorickshaws were spoiled.
• 4000 Taxi’s were damaged. • 900 BEST busses were Damaged.
• 10,000 Trucks and Tempos were grounded
• Around 1000 people died in the incident.
DAMAGE SURVEY

• • For the first time ever, Mumbai’s domestic and international airports were shut for
more than 30 hours due to heavy flooding on runways, submerged instrument landing
system equipment and extremely poor visibility. Over 700 flights were cancelled or
delayed. • Rail links were disrupted and reports on late evening of 30th July
indicated cancellation of several long distance trains till 6th August 2005. •
According to Hindustan Times, an unprecedented 5 million mobile and 2.3 million
MTNL landline users were hit for four hours. After all the expenses, a horrifying
disaster took place in Mumbai because of the Mithi River. Hence, the day”26th July
2005” is thereafter marked as a “BLACK DAY” in the history of Mumbai City.