Unbridled growth, lack of space

Places of extremes, the demand for water is getting stronger by the day
You name a civic problem and the K East and K West wards-comprising
Santacruz, Andheri and Jogeshwari-have it. Bad and congested roads,
overflowing drains every monsoon, and lack of open spaces. And the need for
water getting greater by the day because of the increasing population. Add
to that BMC's erratic garbage clearance and mosquito control.

The K wards are places of extremes: Upmarket neon-lined streets where the
comfortable middle class and the telly-starlets live and then there are the
slums, plenty of them. James John, an activist from Andheri, says that the K
wards are a microcosm of Mumbai.

The residents of these wards are crammed nose to elbow like local train
commuters. The populations of these wards, as per the 2001 census, are about
8.1 lakh and 7 lakh respectively. These wards have seen uncontrolled
development often at the cost of the city's best interests: local
politicians and civic officials have tacitly encouraged slums for political
and monetary motives resulting in claustrophobic growth. With the real
estate boom in the city, the BMC has allowed construction here on many open
spaces, originally reserved for gardens and recreational grounds. The
corporation justified its decision by saying that the city needs more
housing. Activists and intellectuals have retorted that the city needs more
gardens and playgrounds as well.

The perils of such uncontrolled growth were brought to the public and
government's notice in the most drastic way possible: On July 26, 2005,
abnormally high rainfall caused a flood in the western suburbs, and many
areas were sunk knee or waist-deep in water. It turned out that
encroachments by slumdwellers and builders-both had severely narrowed the
river Mithi, thus reducing its capacity to convey rainwater from the
suburban nallahs to the Arabian sea. Because of this, rainwater had flooded
into the suburbs. Similarly, encroachments by the builders in connivance
with civic officials had blocked or narrowed the smaller gutters. A
citizens' outcry followed. Many PILs were filed in the Bombay High Court
against the state and municipal government's housing policies and lack of
action against encroachment. The BMC had to repair the roads, widen river
Mithi and improve the stormwater drainage. There are diggings still on at
many major junctions to rebuild the stormwater drainage or rebuild the
roads.

The other chronic problems, however, remain. The BMC's garbage removal and
insecticide spraying is not regular, because of which piles of garbage
sometimes stink on streets here and swarms of mosquitoes are seen, says
Adolf D'Souza, a civic activist from Juhu.

To bring such problems to the BMC's attention, many educated people in
Andheri have formed citizens' groups. The Advanced Locality Management (ALM)
movement started about a decade ago in the city and is strong in Andheri's
middle-and-upper class areas, so much so that it has produced its first
independent candidate for the BMC elections, D'Souza of Juhu, who is
expected to give a stiff fight to the candidates from political parties.


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