Mahim Bay - Question of Cities

Focused on flood management, Mumbai lets down Mithi River ecologically

Twenty years after the July 2005 deluge in Mumbai, the Mithi, pivotal to drain the rain, is still choked, silted and disconnected from the city despite thousands of crores spent to clean it, build embankment walls and sewage treatment plants.…

Mithi: More than a rainwater drain for Mumbai but tell that to the authorities

The quiet Mithi River turned hostile on July 26, 2005, flooding the city in the record 944 millimetres rainfall that day. Pinched and bent in places, narrowed by encroachments, treated like a sewage stream, the Mithi became the focus of…

Reimagining Mumbai: From flood-prone to sponge city

Over the years, reckless development has destroyed the city’s ecology, increasing the risk of floods. Mumbai’s lakes, marshes, and salt pans used to absorb monsoon rains and mitigate floods but they have been built upon or covered with concrete. As…

How Mumbai lost its open spaces, water bodies

Mumbai’s growth in the British era and post-independence years saw a frenzy of construction. This ‘development’ came at a cost. The city lost water bodies, marsh lands, open spaces and green zones. As population multiplied and the city expanded, more…