The Musi – then and now
Cover photo: Musi River at Hyderabad/ Wikimedia Commons
What if the Musi River could lead the development of Hyderabad?
The Musi, the pride of the city during the Nizam era, is a channel of filth, its banks encroached upon, its waters carrying untreated waste and industrial effluents, and its edges subjected to construction in the name of riverfront development.…
Rivers are not meant to die because of our mistakes
The Musi could have been the defining characteristic of Hyderabad, the cyber city, as it was in history when it filled over 3,000 lakes, had 22 flood diversion channels, 14 public parks, and places of learning and social life along…
The Musi was, and is, Hyderabad’s heritage and culture
The story of the Musi is woven with that of the city. It, historically, had a riverfront with grand palaces, shamshaan ghats, Sati mounds, dhobi ghats, slums, and held immense cultural and historical significance. Bathukamma, the flower festival, was celebrated…
‘We want the Musi cleaned but without displacing the people’
Once a lifeline of the city of Hyderabad, the Musi was home to thousands of people – mostly economically backward -- living along its banks. The increasing pollution threatened their well-being; the demolitions, their very existence. While the unauthorised constructions…
Blue green infrastructure: The commodification of nature
As climate change-related extreme events such as heat waves and unprecedented flooding become common, the concept of blue green infrastructure is catching on. It should have been about restoring natural ecology in a city – repairing and renewing watercourses, reviving…