had been encroached, both legally and illegally, to construct buildings and other
infrastructure projects. The flood of 2005 brought to the fore the fact that Mithi is an
integral part of city’s drainage network. And so are the other rivers—Oshiwara,
Poisar and Dahisar (see box 2: Mumbai’s Unknown Rivers, and map 2: Mumbai’s
river systems).
The floodplains of these rivers have completely disappeared and are thickly
populated. The course of some rivers has been diverted, such as Mithi river near the
airport, to facilitate construction activities. “The administration does not understand
that rivers are not nullahs. They have their own course and cannot be channelized
like gutters. If we tinker too much, the rivers will fight back with vengeance, as
Mithi did on July 26 when it breached the airport wall and flooded the runway,”
warned Girish Raut, an advocate and environment activist based in Mumbai. “The
reason why rivers have floodplains is because rivers are expected to flood. Mumbai
has eaten into floodplains of all the rivers,” added Patwardhan.
Map 2 Mumbai’s river
systems. Source http://upload.
wikimedia.org/wikipedia/
commons/6/69/RiverGeography-Mumbai.png
464
S. Manasi and N. Jamwal