‘Save Mithi river; or pay the price’

“India’s water security is in crisis. Forty years ago, most Indian cities had abundant natural and manmade water sources, but reckless urbanisation has reduced all of them to stinking sewers. This disturbing trend must be arrested and we must strive to clean up our rivers and revive our traditional water bodies,” said Magsaysay Award winner Rajendra Singh.

Singh and former Union environment minister Suresh Prabhu released a report and documentary film titled Making The Sewer A River Again: Why Mumbai Must Reclaim Its Mithi on Tuesday.

The report and film deal with the dreadful condition of the city’s river, which, along with its green estuary, works like a lung for a city choking on pollution.

“I think the collective apathy of the people of Mumbai, absence of political will, and administrative lethargy are all responsible for the current oppressive state of the Mithi,” Singh said. The report was released in the picturesque Maharashtra Nature Park along the Mithi.

Lauding the eco-initiative by think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF), which seeks to mould public opinion towards urban transformation, both Singh and Prabhu said they were optimistic about the vision for restoration of the Mithi.

The Madhav Chitale committee set up to investigate why Mumbai almost drowned on July 26, 2005, had listed the neglect of the Mithi as one of the main causes. Prabhu said the national efforts for forest conservation must include the coastal green cover that is also under threat.

“The estuaries along the vast coastline of India are being degraded,” he said. “The filthy environment of the Mithi around which the fragile ecosystem is struggling to survive is a grim reminder of this. The Mithi must be revived, or Mumbai will have to pay a heavy price.”

The event, which included a cruise up the Mithi from its confluence with the sea at Mahim, exposed the appalling truth about the river and its delicate ecosystem, which is indispensible for the city’s security in the face of impending threats posed by global warming.

“This proves the ineffectiveness of the restoration carried out by both the MMRDA and the BMC under the Rs1,600 crore Mithi River Redevelopment Project,”  said ORF chairperson Sudheendra Kulkarni.