Mithi most polluted river across Maha
Apart from Mumbai, state’s most polluted water bodies are in Pune, Thane; untreated sewage is prime reason, say experts
MUMBAI: Five water bodies in Maharashtra contain ‘heavily polluted’ water, and Mumbai’s Mithi River is one of them, according to a water quality analysis done by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) in May.
Apart from the Mithi, Thane’s Rabodi Nallah, Colour Chem Nallah, Sandoz Nallah, and BPT Navapur, which receive sewage and industrial waste, had ‘heavily polluted’ or ‘very bad’ water. The MPCB’S findings were compiled after monitoring water quality at 250 locations in Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nagpur, under the National Water Monitoring Programme. These included rivers, sea coasts and creeks, drains, dams and wells . While 81%, or 139 of these sites had ‘non-polluted’ water, 28 sites (16%) contained ‘polluted’ water, and five (3%) were ‘heavily polluted’.
Most sites where the MPCB recorded poor water quality were in the urban areas of Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nagpur. In Mumbai, nine locations, most of which are popular tourist spots, had ‘polluted water’ — Juhu, Worli Sea Face, Nariman Point, Gateway of India, Girgaum Chowpatty, Versova, Malabar Hill, Haji Ali and Dadar’ Shivaji Park.
The MPCB said the reason more locations in Mumbai were identified as having polluted water was because it collected samples near marine outfalls, which releases both treated and untreated sewage into the sea, experts pointed out how this showed not enough was being done to stop industries from releasing untreated waste into the sea.
“The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has submitted a comprehensive action plan to improve water quality. Tenders have been issued to set up sewage treatment plants and we expect an improvement in the days to come,” said YB Sontakke, joint director, water quality, MPCB.
Dilip Boralkar, environmentalist and former member secretary, MPCB, however, said the board had failed to control industrial pollution. “In rest of the state, MPCB failed to control industrial pollution entering rivers. It is high time the state comes up with innovative ideas to work together, moving from command and control to being proactive,” Boralkar said.
MPCB said it has warned industries discharging untreated sewage into drains.
Supreme Court advocate and environment lawyer Sanjay Upadhyay said it was time the state develops programmes similar to the Ganga rejuvenation plan. “Unless a robust framework is out in place, these problems will continue. The institutional delivery mechanism is poor and needs to be upgraded immediately,” he said.