1 pg

**The river originates at Powai and meets the Arabian Sea at Mahim Creek flowing through
residential and industrial complexes of Powai, Saki Naka, Kurla, Kalina, Vakola, Bandra-Kurla
complex, Dharavi and Mahim over a distance of about 15 km.

The river bed is narrow in the initial stretch and is about 10 meters wide but at Bandra-Kurla
complex, it is much wider.

Other related archives

**River Mithi (aka Mahim River) is a river in Salsette Island, i.e., the island of the city of Mumbai.
It is a confluence of tail water discharges of Powai and Vihar lakes. The river is seasonal and
rises during the monsoons. The overflowing lakes also contribute to the river flow which is
stopped by a dam in other times. During this season the river is a favourite with the anglers who
catch large fish that have escaped from the lakes. Fishing is banned there.[citation needed]

it’s like netting the small fry and letting Moby Dick go. City environmentalists, while welcoming
the fact that the government has woken up to the fact that the Mithi is a river, say that by making
a scapegoat out of slums and small workshops along the banks of the Mithi, the authorities are
not addressing the real reasons why a once navigable river has become a murky trickle.
Whether it is industrial effluents or sewage, environmentalists say that people living along the
Mithi river contribute to at most a small percentage of the pollution of the river. “The government
is focussing all its attention on the small scrap and recycling units in Kurla-Kalina while all these
units do is to segregate the waste of big industries. Many of them don’t even have a drainage
outlet to dump waste into the river,’’ says environmentalist Girish Raut who has long been
campaigning against infrastructure projects which have swallowed up wetlands and changed the
course of the Mithi river.
“The real pollutants are the big industries in Andheri, Saki Naka, Jogeshwari and-Vikhroli which
dump all their untreated effluents into the river. Even the airport dumps its waste oil into the
Mithi,’’ alleges Raut.
U n t re at e d sewage is the other big culprit but Raut says that of the 800 million litres of
sewage that is dumped into the Mithi river per day, only 2 million litres come from the slums that
line the banks of the river. “In addition, in so many parts of the city, sewage drains have been
diverted into stormwater drains which are supposed to carry rain water into the river. This
certainly does not come from the slums, most of which do not even have proper drainage,’’ he
adds. The current climate of panic about the health of the river, post 26/7, has blurred the lines of
distinction between ‘flooding’ and ‘pollution’, say environmentalists and the government and the
construction lobby are thriving on this confusion. Pollution, says Raut, is not the main cause of
the flooding of the Mithi—ecologically unsound construction is. “The institutional culprits here are
much bigger than individual culprits,’’ agrees environmentalist Darryl D’- Monte who is on the
government-appointed Mithi Nadi Development Authority looking into the revival of Mumbai’s
forsaken Mithi river.
“The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has absolutely no
ecological literacy. The Bandra-Worli sea link, the Bandra Kurla Complex, the National Stock
Exchange built right on the bend of the river—these are the real causes of the flooding of the
Mithi,’’ says D’- Monte. “Successive reclamations have changed the very course of the river,’’
adds Sarang Kulkarni of Reef Watch Marine Conservation (RWMC) which will be conducting a
series of tests on the quality of water in the Mithi river.Some of the deadliest chemicals like
cyanide, lead, zinc and sulphates have been detected in the waters of the battered Mithi in
suburban Mumbai A detailed chemicals analysis carried out by the Maharashtra Pollution Control
Board (MPCB) at 20 different point along the 15-kilometre river has found an alarming presence
of these chemicals . The MPCB report is a years old now but the Vilas Rao Deshmukh
government has woken up to the problem only after Terible Tuesday’s floods that were caused in
part by the rampant encroachment along the Mithi, which prompted it to swell at various locations
like Kurla, Kalina, around the airport and Bandra. “The Mithi is treated like an open drain by
people who fill it with raw sewage, industrial waste and unchecked garbage and unchecked
garbage . the organic waste have also reduced the river’s water-carrying capacity whose pollution
levels have reached an alarming stage,” states the MPCB report prepared with Klean
Environment Consultants Ltd. Among the most poisonous substances found in the river cyanide
(at places like Jarimari, near Saki Naka and the airport);this is an indicator of the illegal industries
functioning in these regions. Sulphates and chlorides were also noticed at three sampling points
near Mahim Creek and farther upstream.
***(***the mithi river fets pollluted due to the following reasons.....
) Domestic sewage due to residential colonies as well as hutments in the thickly
populated area.

2) Industrial waste generated by authorized as well as unauthorized industries.

3) Animal waste due to cow sheds in various areas.

4) Garbage dump by citizens all along its course.

5) Industrial sludge and rejects discarded by recyclers at Kalina and cst road...

2 n 3 pg..
The river is also a natural drainage channel which carries the excess waters during the
monsoons. However it is filthy mainly due to the presence of slums and the discharge of industrial
effluents.[citation needed]
Environmental relevance of the river **When the river was not as polluted as it is today, it used to
serve as an important storm water drain for Mumbai but as it has been used as a sewer over the
years, its importance as a storm water drain has reduced and on the contrary, it poses
Environmental degradation of the Mithi as a hazard during high tide bringing polluted water into
the city.
**Very often, and this continues to happen, citizens dump raw sewage, industrial waste and
municipal waste into the river, unchecked. Besides this, illegal activities like washing vessels,
animals and oily drums, discharge of unauthorised hazardous waste are also carried out along
the course of this river. Cattle sheds in some areas contribute animal waste. Barrel cleaners,
scrap dealers and others dump sludge oil, effluent and garbage in the river. The organic waste,
sludge and garbage dumping has reduced the carrying capacity of the river. The water with
mixture of sewage and industrial waste is a threat to marine life. The river bed is full of sludge,
garbage and vegetation growth like hyacinth in many parts.

4 n 5th pg..
**
n 2006, the Supreme court of India passed an order directing the state government to remove
encroachments on all water bodies.[citation needed]

The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai has undertaken a cleanliness drive lately so that
the floods of July 26, 2005 are not repeated.

An eco-group has been formed by Rajendra Singh, an award winning conservationist in 2009.[1]
It aims to revive the dying river.
[edit] Development

Many young entrepreneurs in and around Mumbai are now aggressively involved with cause of
Mithi River, and creating awareness on a global scale as the government of India has once again
started ignoring this extremely important issue. [2]

Recently a Contemporary Art show was held to create major awareness about dire situation of
Mithi River in Bombay by "Chintan Upadhyay" titled Khatti - Mithi[
++_)(*****)) uggested steps to minimize the pollution and the degradation of the mithi river :-

1) Provide sewerage system on both the banks of the river so that the sewerage is collected and
treated at various locations. This includes existing sewerage discharge drains provided by the
BMC.

2) Immediately stop all unauthorized industries which includes scrap dealers, scrap recyclers,
waste oil recyclers etc. these industries contribute industrial waste, hazardous waste as well as
sludge.

3) Provide proper garbage collection system on both banks of the river, so that garbage is not
dumped on the river

4) To improve flow pattern, it is essential to clean the bed of mithi river right from Powai to Mahim.
this will improve its capacity to carry load.

5) To improve the quality of water, sewage treatment plants need to be planted at various
locations. Water after treatment can b used in industry and gardening. Both the banks of Mithi
river can be planted with proper vegetation for beautification. In fact this will work as a natural
eco-system to improve the quality of water and save cost of providing expensive treatment plants.

6) If the sludge is removed from the bed of Mithi river, it may be possible to use this river for
internal navigation purpose, using some barriers down stream, as the width of the river at many
places is more than 10 metres.

Short Term measures include following:

(1) Immediate closure of all the unauthorized activities which discharge industrial effluents,
sludge, oil and chemicals.

(2) Provide proper garbage collection system to prevent citizens from dumping the same into the
river.

(3) A lot of unemployed people can be given the job of keeping the river clean all throughout the
year.

Long Term measures include the following:

Long term measures to minimize pollution in Mithi river include the following:-

1. Plan for sewers on both the banks of Mithi river and provide Sewage treatment plants at
various locations. Such plants can be provided wherever proper drainage lines exist today.

2. Dredge the entire length of Mithi river bed to improve its carrying capacity.

3. Provide proper garbage collection stations for the benefit of hutment dwellers

4. Provide public toilets at regular intervals so that the people don't use the river as a urinary.
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