Mumbai gutters: Satya Kiran Times
Mumbai deserves cleaner gutters*
M G WARRIER
The Pocket
Oxford Dictionary before me defines a gutter as ‘a shallow trough beneath the
edge of a roof, or a channel at the side of a street, for carrying off rain
water’. In Mumbai, gutter has assumed different meanings for different people.
For most of us, a gutter is a trench provided by municipal corporation where
dirty water get collected and people dump waste. Now, let me ‘come to the
point’!
A 12 feet
wide gutter flows adjacent to the housing complex in Bhandup (West) where we
stay. It comes from somewhere beyond Pawai and silently flows beyond our area,
perhaps terminating somewhere near Vashi creek. The stretch of the gutter from
Powar Public School to some distance beyond Bhandup Railway station has huge
accumulations of waste and water has no free flow. The sides of the gutter
‘house’ snakes, rats and other ‘wild life’ creatures. The gutter provides a
fertile breeding ground for mosquitoes and a variety of fleas.
The one
kilometre stretch visible from Bhandup Railway Station supports the following:
i) Sale of
about 20,000 units of mosquito repellents per month to 10,000 households.
ii) Fumigation
contracts in several housing societies in the area.
iii) Extra
income for the medical profession providing healthcare support to residents in
this area.
iv) Savings for
some families which throw their waste into the gutter.
The list is
illustrative and not exhaustive. Just wondering, whether any vested interests
are preventing the authorities from periodical cleaning of gutters. When normal
and routine thing do not happen normally and routinely, citizens use their
imagination to formulate ‘allegations’. In Kerala, at one stage, people alleged
commercial interests of ‘anti-rabies medicines lobby’ to be behind supporters
of ‘save street dogs campaign’!
Speaking
from the ramparts of Red Fort, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had exhorted people
of India to cleanse their premises. ‘Swacch Bhaarat Abhiyaan’ is a follow up of
this.
In Mumbai,
gutters are cleaned once in a year, sometime in May/June to ensure free flow of
water to prevent flooding of streets. What is preventing Municipal Corporation
from ensuring that the gutters remain clean during other periods also? If
someone has an answer, express it!
****************
(The
writer is a freelancer based in Mumbai and author of the 2014 book “Banking,
Reforms & Corruption: Development Issues in 21st Century India”. Email mgwarrier@gmail.com)
*Article published in Satya Kiran Times, November 1-15, 2016
No: 243420112016
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