Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Mumbai’s Natural Systems – Important Resource for the City’s Future

Sea Levels are rising due to climate change. The World Bank has ranked Mumbai as one of the most vulnerable cities to sea level rise in the world – 5th in terms of overall cost of damage and 7th in terms of damage  measured as percentage of GDP[1]!
The horrors of 26th July, 2005 still haunt us every time there are predictions of heavy rainfall. Flash floods and landslides occur, in some capacity, every year during the monsoons. The floods, stagnant water and untreated surface runoff catalyze the spread of diseases, deterioration of ground water quality generating negative perceptions of these vulnerable urban spaces.
In response, the Municipal Government expands its budget for installing larger storm water pipes and constructs new sewage treatment plants. However, there are no attempts made to address the root cause behind these issues- ineffective top-down Government regulations with general public apathy as a by-product. To better address these causes, one must first analyze the City’s morphology.
Mumbai, from being an archipelago of 7 islands with wetlands between them, was consolidated, first by the British, and then the Indian Government into 1 large land mass. The City grew northwards and together with housing complexes employment centres were set up which in turn attracted informal communities to encroach nearby. Parallel to this growth, Government organizations set up infrastructure and created spatial strategies for development in order to streamline the way for entrepreneurial agencies to populate the market. In search of this market oriented goal, naturally existing systems (mangrove forests, wetlands, rivers) were ignored, and at many places erased – The consolidation of islands resulted in most of the wetlands being sacrificed thereby, causing a shift in balance – urban development replacing nature. The mangrove forests, rivers, and wetland systems that protected the coastal suburbs from high monsoon tides, and floods, were compromised.
Despite the Municipality constructing concrete roads and building storm water drains lack of maintenance, unchecked growth of formal and informal developments blocked these drains with solid waste. To add to this, deforesting wetlands made the city vulnerable to tidal surge causing stormw water drains to overflow back into the city during high tide hours.
In addition to issues of flooding, sea level around Mumbai is projected to rise by 48cm by 2100, which along with tidal and storm surge could have devastating impact along the coast. There has been insubstantial amount of studies carried out on this issue. Google search reveals couple of newspaper articles mentioning the possibility of sea level rise[2], and a general technical report from the National Institute of Oceanography in Goa[3].

However, thanks to public protests due to frequent floods, the remaining mangroves and wetlands have been placed under protection of the forest department and strict regulations have been set against their deforestation. Most or all the mangrove forests are now located along coastal edges of Mumbai. They have been pushed out, and rivers have been squeezed in, leaving Mumbai vulnerable to tidal waves, floods, erosions and sea level rise.  Deeper examination suggests that Mumbai’s rivers’ urban corridors emerge as one of the greatest potentials to not only address issues of flooding, but also create a liveable and symbiotic urban environment. Mumbai’s rivers are seasonal and begin in the catchment areas in hills of Borivali National Park and flow via wetlands into the Arabian Sea - Dahisar in the north, Oshiwara towards the west, Poisar in the center and Mithi in the southern part of Mumbai.

To illustrate one framework for addressing many of these issues, Oshiwara River’s urban corridor is chosen. It shows these symptoms as empirical evidence of larger issues – River water and bed are polluted due to point and non-point source pollution from the watershed. Regular floods during monsoons in the watershed due to storm water pipe outlets getting choked by garbage in addition to change in depth of riverbed caused by excess sedimentation. And negative perception among people who live in or pass by this watershed due to foul stench and unaesthetic River edge.
The root causes of these symptoms are attributed to Government policies and their ambiguous definitions of urban rivers at national, state and local levels. Physical Infrastructure in Mumbai is operated and maintained by the Storm Water Department of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM). At the State level it is the Maharashtra Coastal Zone Management Authority that lays down measures for protecting and improving the quality of coastal environment and preventing, abating and controlling environmental pollution along the coast. At the national level, Ministry of Environment and Forests sets out general guidelines for conserving the nation’s natural resources.
This multi-layered top-down structure complicates the implementation and maintenance of the regulations and policies. Additionally, having unclear and ambiguous terminologies for natural systems does not help – Urban Rivers are referred to as both nallas and rivers, depending on its utility.  For example, the Fact Finding Committee’s report on Mumbai floods calls Oshiwara River a nalla while listing places for improving storm water drains and it becomes a River when describing the flooded areas. The MCGM on its website lists 3 major nallas for P South ward – Oshiwara River being one of them. The term Nalla brings images of polluted, smelly, mosquito infested open drains. Thus, when the government itself refers to Rivers as nallas it is no surprise that residents perceive and treat the River as an open drain. Furthermore, despite specifying areas under CRZ, there is no readily available information or maps illustrating it. Thus, leading to multiple interpretations of developable land forcing the Municipality to only be able to react retroactively.
Meanwhile, the residents and laypersons are completely unaware of existence of these regulations. The only times they are made aware, is when they are charged an additional Rs.6/sq.ft for purchasing an apartment within the CRZ. This lack of awareness of ecological issues when coupled with extra payment furthers the negative perception towards natural systems, especially nallas … er Rivers.
In seeking ways to address these root causes lies the way forward. Spreading awareness of ecological benefits that urban rivers provide, among all residents of formal and informal housing types, is probably, one of the most important first steps. This can be done through informational leaflets, public exhibitions, and even popular media – movies and newspapers.
Additionally, surveys should be administered to learn about people’s perceptions of their neighbourhood and of the River itself. These can help planners learn about and learn from local knowledge, to focus future policies.
Subsequently, a decentralized approach could be proposed where the residents themselves are given control of managing all rainfall that falls on their property – through rain water harvesting and surface runoff treatment and detention basins. This can take care of the load on both, Municipal infrastructure and Oshiwara River, thereby preventing backflow during high tides. Through such inclusive approaches and trusting local knowledge there is tremendous scope for more innovation in water treatment and management.
Here, the Government should be facilitator and mediator, ensuring that processes are all inclusive. There should also be transparency in the planning stages especially for cross departmental collaboration – storm water management, road transport, sewerage, and housing departments. Decentralizing the process would help cut through red tape and give more teeth to the Municipality. The blanket CRZ norms could be modified as per local conditions based on topography, hydrology and watershed. This could be used as an incentive for developers to use Best Management Practices for water treatment and management within their properties.
The Government, also, has the potential to set a precedent for rest of the City. Most of the land South of Oshiwara River between Link Road and SV Road, is zoned as Special Planned Area and owned by MMRDA. They have plans to create an Oshiwara Business District here. However, the Global Sea Level Rise map suggests that a major part of this area would be under water by 2050 and most of the rest of it by 2100! MMRDA could use this as an opportunity to propose sea level rise resilient designs through surrender strategies, and building a combination of horizontal and vertical levees by planting wetlands and mangrove forests along the River’s edge.
Following these processes could potentially pave way for a watershed based zoning, where land use is determined by land form and natural resources, rather than the current form of Euclidean zoning (similar land uses grouped close to each other regardless of physical conditions).
This need to spread public awareness and involve local populations for making decisions is most essential to address many issues around deterioration of Rivers’ Urban Corridors. The importance of improving storm water drainage infrastructure and proposing sea level rise resilient strategies along the urban corridor, illustrate the need to integrate the site’s physiology with land use. Thus, a two pronged approach of upgrading infrastructure sensitively, and utilizing local knowledge are most relevant to maximize the potentials provided by Mumbai’s Rivers.



[1] http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/08/19/coastal-cities-at-highest-risk-floods
[3] http://www.moef.nic.in/sites/default/files/Unni%20-%20Coastal%20India_0.pdf

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Entrepreneurial spaces




U. આજે ઓછા લોકો છે. ચાર જાણ નથી આવ્યા, એ સેંત બદ્ધાજ તામ્હારા .
D. પાક્કા મારા ને ? અછાં, ચાલો નીકળીએ .
राजू, चल, समय हो गया है | एक बार final गीनती कर ले.
U. સુરત માં થી ખાલી બે લોકો ને લેવ્હાં જાઉં પડશે. એ internet booking છે. OK? ચાલો Bye !
C. गीनती हो गया, चलो निकलते है |

This was a conversation between the usher, the Driver and the conductor (respectively) of a Neeta Volvo bus from Ahmedabad to Mumbai.
The usher came, checked the list given to him by the Neeta Volvo branch office in Ahmedabad, and ushered passengers with tickets into the bus. Then made sure, everyone was in proper seats and then then rechecked the list and discussed what to do with the absentees' seats.
He phoned on their numbers. Kept trying and waited until it was time to depart. And then discussed with the driver that those seats could be spot sold to interested travelers at other stops.
After discussing all this, the usher left the bus. Meanwhile, the driver was getting impatient to leave. He asked the conductor to do a final headcount and they would start the bus.
Once everything was done, the key turned to ignition, the door was shut, the red curtain behind the driver was drawn and the journey began.
At every stop the bus made, one usher came in, seated all the new passengers to their respective seats and left. And whatever leftover seats that were spot sold, the money was split (unoficially) between the driver and the conductor.
Such entrepreneurial opportunities are tapped into largely in our country only. At train stations, before sms booking confirmation etc, there used to be a few guys hanging around who would go and check if your name was on the confirmed passenger list or not. In times of rush, with lot of luggage, when one doesnt have the time to check the list, such people were life savers !
The garbage collection network involves entrepreneurs at every level - the garbage collecting guy in the building, to the garbage collection truck (the municipality), the garbage dumping crew at the dumping ground, and the re-usable scrap collectors at the dumping ground.
There are so many people in India who do the usual kind of work in the various existing systems that there is no space left ! Hence, the rest have to invent work from within these systems to survive.
It is not only how they work that is interesting, but also, the kind of work they invent.
More such systems need to be mapped.

The photograph is from inside the Neeta volvo from Ahmedabad to Mumbai. The conductor's hand comes up to hold the curtain rod to be able to stand steadily.