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Mumbai to mark anniversary of the deluge

Meena Menon

MUMBAI: A year after the deluge on July 26, 2005, when 944 mm of rain fell on Mumbai and its suburbs, killing over 450 people, many memorial meetings are planned in the city, including human chains and a "Mumbai in White" campaign. At least the weather is on the side of the citizens, with occasional rain or thundershowers being forecast for the next 24 hours.

About 54 persons are missing from the day of the floods, according to police records. The former Bharatiya Janata Party MP, Kirit Somaiya, who is taking up the issue for the families of the missing persons, told the press on Tuesday that also missing were the much-promised funds for the clean-up of the Mithi River and development of the city.

The Municipal Corporation now has a revamped disaster management cell, which was flooded on the first day of the heavy rains earlier this month. Civic officials maintain that many drainage pipes have been desilted. The cell receives rainfall reports from 26 locations in the city compared to two last year and has representatives on hand from various agencies to coordinate response efforts. In addition, many preventive works have been undertaken, including desilting creeks and drains and widening and deepening major rivers.

The Mithi which empties out at Mahim was the focus of a major clean-up and a Mithi River Development Authority was constituted by the State Government, one of the many committees set up after the floods last year. The Government has also been pulled up by the High Court and asked to account for the money spent on revamping the drainage system.

However, Mr. Somaiya, who filed a public interest litigation on the Mithi river issue, said nothing substantial was done.

The Municipal Corporation and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority have spent Rs. 51 crores in cleaning up the Mithi, which was completely clogged by industrial effluents and sewage. Mr. Somaiya said the river was still a "nallah" in government record.

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