Mumbai : With the monsoon less than a week away, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is gauging the monsoon preparedness and has listed 234 areas in the city under the category of flood-prone areas. However, civic officials claim that BMC is all set to handle the monsoon this season with over 250 de-watering pumps being set up in various parts of Mumbai, especially the flood-prone areas.
While a major number (19 in total) of the 234 spots falls in the K(West ward) which is the area of Andheri and Oshiwara, M(East) ward which corresponds to Govandi, Tilak Nagar and Chembur falls second in line, with 17 flood prone spots.
Assuring Mumbaikars that the BMC is fully prepared to handle a flood-like situation, should it arise during the monsoon, Laxman Vhatkar, director, (engineering services & projects) said, “Intense flooding like that of the 2006 monsoons in the city is a rare phenomena.
Then it was because of excessive rainfall and continued high tide for over 2 days in a row that caused the floods. Yet, if such a situation is predicted this monsoon, we are prepared.”
Vhatkar informed that type A has 40 out of the 234 flood prone areas which are chronic flood-prone areas where flooding is a result of high tide and not monsoon alone. Others are type B areas that flood only if more than 55mm of rainfall occurs in an hour. He said, “We have taken precautions in both type A and B areas and have installed de-watering pumps.”
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Water pipelines to be replaced in slums
Mumbai : In an effort to provide clean drinking water to slum-dwellers of Mumbai, and also to prevent water theft that happens in these slums, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has pro-posed to set up new water con-nections in 176 areas across Mumbai and its suburbs that will independently extend to each household in slums instead of a local community area.
Currently, water pipelines extend to a community area from where a number of houses draw water. This has led to theft of water as household hire local contractors and set up illegal pipelines up to their houses without the permission and knowledge of the BMC.
This will also increase civic body’s revenue as the BMC will now earn taxes separately on these multiple pipelines. Earlier, with one connection for one locality, the BMC would acquire taxes on a single pipeline. Trushna Vishwasrao, leader of the house in the BMC, said, “People then get extra connec-tions from that one connection and do not pay the civic body taxes for additional lines.”
Vishwasrao also said, “The existing pipelines are old and many times run through nullahs or parallel to them. When they rust and erode due to age, they mix up with impure water which is then supplied to the adjacent slums. To avoid such unhygienic instances we are going to replace all the existing water pipelines and relocate them.”
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Eeshanpriya MS
