LONG-TERM SOLUTION

This is with reference to the news report “Heavy rains, landslides kill 30 in Mumbai,” (July 18.)

It is indeed lamentable that every year during the rains, the city of Mumbai gets flooded, leading to losses of human lives and properties. The shanty areas suffer the most, with weak structure houses collapsing. Many of the low-lying areas of Mumbai, especially in the eastern part of the city get flooded. The roads become rivers of water. To compound maters, many guters are open and people lose their lives in these horrible manholes.

The flooding and stoppage of the city are now annual features. The government needs to install more pumps to remove the water from low lying areas. Manholes should always be covered, especially before the monsoons. We need to install more guters and clean the existing ones. We are living with the drainage systems built by the British, in the 1930s and 1940s. People who live in shanty areas should gradually be provided with beter quality housing. Many buildings in Mumbai are very old and shaky. They need to be renovated or rebuilt.

It is unfortunate that this season the heavy monsoons have arrived in the midst of a raging COVID-19 pandemic in the city and country. So, the citizens are having to fight on many fronts. The police and firemen have to batle these natural disasters, in the middle of a pandemic. Their jobs are tough.

The long-term solution is to decongest Mumbai city by building more cities on virgin lands between Mumbai and Pune. We have to create self-sufficient townships in these locations, complete with housing, business opportunities, schools, universities, shopping, clubs, which provide holistic living experiences to people.