Check dam on Dahisar river ready after 4 months

Mumbai: The first-of-its-kind check dam on the banks of the Dahisar river is finally ready after continuous four months’ work by citizens. The check dam has been built through community participation to store water throughout the year. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has lauded the citizens for the check dam which will ensure regular flow of water and prevent clogging of waste in the river.

Members of River March and Art of Living (AOL), who took up the work of construction of the check dam, said that they were planning to use microbes and enzymes to keep it stench-free. The five-feet-long Kolhapuri style check dam has been built across 700m of the Dahisar river near Dhobhighat.

“We are now starting with the water treatment enzyme along the same stretch along with another one inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park,” said Himanshu Mehta, project head and AOL teacher.

The project has been completely funded by AOL at a cost of around Rs 20.5 lakh. It is a pilot project, which is estimated to store around five crore litres of water throughout the year. “The dam will be operated from May 31 to October. During May, all the gates will remain open so that the water will flow during monsoon,” said Gopal Jhaveri, member of River March.