Mumbai, the city of dreams which is also the commercial capital in the western India. Built on what is, in effect a peninsula, surrounded on three sides by water and the Western Ghats, Mumbai occupies a site of natural beauty. A tiny island that it is called has grown prodigiously in the past few decades. Unlike Manhattan, Mumbai has no grid and has grown organically and sprawled. The population of the city is ever growing and the number of people migrating into cities from villages in search of work is increasing day by day. We can’t tell people to stop migrating. Can we? Mumbai attracts immigrants from rural areas seeking employment and a better life. Despite government attempts to discourage the influx of people, the city’s population grew at an annual rate of more than four percent a year. Many newcomers end up in abject poverty, often living in slums or sleeping in the streets. Nor can we stop development, that’s what characterises us as humans. In the list of the top ten urban sprawls since 1990, Mumbai has been on NO 5 and will be on NO 3 in the next 13 years. The projections made in the UN’s recent publication of State of the world cities 2012-2013 state that Delhi’s urban agglomeration will have a population of 28.6 million by 2025, still well behind Tokyo’s 37.1 million. Mumbai meanwhile reached a population of 25.8 million. There’s a 29% jump in the population by 2025.  However, sheer numbers of people and rapid population growth have contributed to some serious social and environmental problems. An estimated 42 percent of the city’s inhabitants live in slum conditions. Some areas of Mumbai city have population densities of around 46,000 per square kilometre—among the highest in the world. The fact that two of our cities are going to be in the top list of urban sprawls is not something to celebrate upon. Quite apart from the question of what kind of pressure it will put on the city amenities, it highlights a serious problem.  It’s neither desirable nor a sustainable way of development. Mumbai’s response to this fast urbanization is deplorable; squalor, slums, traffic congestion, floods, crime, pollution, deficient infrastructure, shortage of water and power issues are haunting Mumbai. Moreover, environmental infrastructure of cities, including solid waste disposal system, drainage and sewerage is not keeping up with the fast urbanization and posing serious environmental hazards. As a result, a haphazard development is taking place which is even more life threatening. For example a study said that breathing Mumbai’s air is like inhaling 20 cigarettes a day. The region is lagging behind in reaping full economic benefits of urbanization. These problems need to be solved to make the city serve as the engine of growth of national economy. The primary attributes of environment that are affected by the urban sprawl are air, water, land and energy. Due to this excess development or what we may call as urban sprawl several changes have taken place in the climate and even a small change in the climate almost leads to a catastrophe .Here I would like to mention about the drawbacks in the drainage system and the floods that take place in Mumbai almost every year. About 100 years ago, if Mumbai city were to receive a rainfall, as heavy as the one witnessed in the monsoon of 2005, its outcome would not have been as catastrophic. This is because the population of the city has grown to ten times of what it was a century ago. To accommodate this population, the city has risen vertically, open spaces have shrunken, the arterial roads cannot be widened any further and the drainage systems fails to keep pace with the ever-increasing requirements of the metropolis.  One more factor adding to all of this are the faulty zoning regulations, when the colonies start building beyond the boundary of the city to sprawl over the neighbouring areas it does not fall under any particular zoning regulation due to which the rules in those outskirt areas vary which leads to housing everywhere, even on wetlands and where construction is not supposed to take place, therefore leading to a lot of change in the microclimate. Although global climate change has been observed almost since the 1970’s, their unpleasant effects were not alarming enough for the governments and planning authorities of cities around the world, to sit and take notice of. Thus, Mumbai’s authorities were never prompted to draft new planning policies, considering the new climatic pattern. This has been true in the case of the city authorities of Mumbai. Prior to 26^th July 2005, the city’s existing zoning and building regulations, that were drafted almost three decades ago, were used to scrutinize and regulate the new developments. There regulations failed to consider the factor of the rapidly changing local climate. Mumbai, which is known to receive an annual rainfall of around 240mm, restricted only to the months of June-September, now bears a downpour of almost eight times the average expected rainfall, in addition to the untimely winter showers. However, none of these have been considered to draft new planning policies for the city that can prevent the inundation caused by these rains and the rising sea levels. Most of the new developments permit the construction of basements, underground pedestrian bypasses and habitable space at ground level. Also, numerous old and abandoned buildings are being revitalized and remodelled to be used for a different purpose. However, the change of use of buildings from “ordinary to critical functions is carried out without strengthening the building” and without considering the climatic changes in the region. In the event of the floods, these areas get water –logged, causing destruction of life and property at large. These woes are added to by an antiquated drainage system that has been serving the city since the past century. Moreover, there has also been a blatant ignorance on the government’s and planning authority’s part to promote sustainable building construction. The storm water drainage system of Mumbai was built largely in the days of the British rule in 1860, when the population of Mumbai was one-tenth of what it is at present. After the initial development, improving the drainage has never been a priority for the government. The system comprises of about 400km of underground drains and laterals, built on the basis of population and weather conditions of the times it was constructed in. This antiquated storm water drainage system is capable of handling rain intensity of 25mm per hour at low tide. If the rain intensity exceeds 25mm per hour and a high tide occurs, there is always a possibility of inundation. The city’s existing drainage system is designed to tackle a rainfall of normal intensity, with that assumption that there are no significant solid deposits in the drains. But the fact is otherwise, most of the city drains have been found to be occupied by a substantial amount of garbage. The resulting decrease in the capacity of the city’s storm water drainage system has been proved by the disastrous effects of the inundation that hit the city of Mumbai on 26^th july 2005. The city was caught unawares and unprepared to deal with the crisis that followed the floods. It was not in the capacity of the city’s drains to let out the excess water. This Megacity definitely needs a climate change action plan. Mumbai is most vulnerable to climate change in the world due to its population growing in an unsustainable urban development pattern. In Mumbai, low-income groups are incapable of affording high land prices and thus end up living in slums and informal settlements. Around 74% of the total population in greater Mumbai lives in poor housing conditions, which are more vulnerable to floods and health hazards. The city due to this is constantly under the threat of floods as a result of the low lying areas and drainage system. The city due to this is constantly under the threat of floods as a result of the low lying areas and drainage system. In the city a report identified 111 places as flood prone areas. Projections have shown that the city may face water shortages by 2050. Uncontrolled urban sprawl together with poor sanitation and drainage services seem to be the main cause for the disruption of urban watersheds. Sprawl is not an inevitable consequence of economic growth but rather a result of specific government policies that allow and in some case promote unsustainable development. Mumbai’s population growth is viewed as the root cause of land reclamation along the Mithi River and subsequent expansion of slums, residential complexes and industrial units. A lack of “systematic regional land use planning “ coupled with “ the fragmented local government structure within each metropolitan area” has fuelled suburban sprawl on the periphery of the Indian cities. Consider for example, Dharavi, a 175-hectare tract housing 800,000 people. Until the late 19th century, Dharavi was a swamp. Poor migrants moved in from different parts of India and made the land habitable. It was through their resourcefulness that Dharavi developed a flourishing economy. Today, the clichéd description of Dharavi as “Asia’s largest slum” depicts it as a place of misery and oppression. But on the positive side observe the drive, the enterprise, the spirit of survival amid the incredibly wretched physical conditions, and you cannot fail to be uplifted. Rarely do you see idleness and despair associated with this “slum”. From the establishments manufacturing leather goods for exports and selling knock-offs of designer brands on the main street to artisanal establishments in the congested inner lanes, the picture is one of pulsating energy. Dharavi is an economic success story that owes nothing to any government subsidy or urban planning. What you see here is pure Mumbai, a tribute to its spirit of human survival, ingenuity and collective solidarity. It’s an unintended city within the city. Most of the development that you see today has been built upon a landscape of overflows. Even the city’s railway lines and national highway have been built upon what was originally a series of wetlands that served as catchment and drainage for monsoon rains. Mumbai’s Mithi River, once a web of creeks that drained excess monsoon water out into Arabian Sea, has shrunk severely as the city has grown. Uncleared rubbish also clogs storm water drains. As a coastal city we should have been in top gear right now, and since this happens every year we should have been ready for this, to adapt to climate impacts. Instead we see planners filling wetlands, planning construction on low lying salt pan lands and otherwise adding to Mumbai’s heat sink effect by removing 10,000 tress. Image reference – New Bombay-

Old Bombay-