Desilting affected due to fund crunch: Officials

Mumbai: While the desilting of the city’s rivers post monsoon is being carried out by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the civic officials stated that it cannot be conducted more regularly due to lack of funds. A civic official said that because of a shortage of funds, they are not able to desilt rivers at least four times a month as per the requirement. Currently, rivers are cleaned only once a month usually.

“We have removed 70 per cent of waste from rivers through the desilting. However, we are facing a shortage of funds to carry out the desilting more frequently,” said a civic official.  The BMC floats tender in the beginning of the year for desilting of city’s rivers at pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon levels. Last month, the Dahisar and Poisar rivers were cleaned as part of the post-monsoon desilting work.

The work of erecting boundary walls on both sides of the rivers is underway to prevent garbage dumping in the rivers by citizens. Activists have claimed that the BMC is also concretising the riverbeds in the process.

“A lot of money can be saved if they stop concretising the base of the rivers. It is not just unnecessary but also harmful to the rivers and its surrounding areas. If the base is concrete, the water cannot percolate into the ground, leading to a flood-like situation in monsoons. The groundwater level and aquatic life of the river will also be affected,” said Gopal Jhaveri, a member of citizen group River March.