Urban flooding and rising temperatures cited as biggest challenges as Mumbai begins to draft its first ‘climate action plan’
Waste management, urban greening and biodiversity, urban flooding and water resource management, building energy efficiency, air quality and sustainable transport are in focus as India’s financial capital has initialised its maiden climate action plan. More details here.
In a bid to tackle the issue of urban flooding, the city is building underground storage tanks across Hindmata, Dadar, and Parel.
With increasing incidence of urban flooding, rising temperatures and the sea level due to climate change, the Maharashtra government has launched an initiative called ‘climate action plan’ for Mumbai in order to take measures to mitigate the crisis.
The plan was announced in an event presided by Cabinet Minister of Environment, Tourism & Protocol Aaditya Thackeray and is stated to ensure ‘better future planning and growth keeping in tune with climate adaptation, mitigation and resilience’. The plan is expected to be drafted by the end of 2021 .
“The time for action is now as any further delays would make Mumbai unsuitable to live in over the next decade. Mainstreaming climate action while implementing Mumbai’s development plan can protect the city’s natural systems, increase resilience capacities of vulnerable groups, and enable resilient urban growth that ensures aggressive reductions to the city’s greenhouse gas emissions,” Thackeray said at the event.
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The six thematic action areas that shall be focused in the plan are sustainable waste management, urban greening and biodiversity, urban flooding and water resource management, building energy efficiency, air quality and sustainable mobility.
The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, along with New Delhi based research organisation in collaboration with London-based climate leadership group C40 Cities have been assigned to prepare the plan which is scheduled for public launch by November.
Underground tanks to prevent urban flooding
In a bid to tackle the issue of urban flooding, the city is building underground storage tanks across Hindmata, Dadar, and Parel. These are inspired by Japan’s capital Tokyo which has such facilities to contain extremely heavy rain events with rainfall up to 300 mm or continuous rain over four hours.
“There are also plans to deploy floating debris-trapping trash booms at nine critical places in the city – including the Dahisar, Oshiwara and Poisar rivers – as well as vital nullahs in the city, in order to minimise the stress on the city’s waterways,” Sanjeev Kumar, Additional Municipal Commissioner said at the event.
It is also informed that under the plan, the city’s first desalination plant, which would process 200 million litres of water per day, will be built near Manori, Malad (West).
“This will provide relief to Mumbai residents who endure water shortages of 10-15 percent during the summers,” Kumar added.
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As per the concept note of the plan, the city’s air quality has been deteriorating especially in inland areas away from the coastal breeze, recording higher pollutant concentrations. “This can be attributed to increasing reliance on motorised transport and increased traffic congestion, among other contributing factors,” it noted.
Meanwhile, Shruti Narayanan, Regional Director, South and west Asia regions, C40 cities said in the event, “Mumbai has led the way in envisioning climate action in India and the region. With the inception and implementation of M-CAP (Mumbai-Climate Action Plan), Mumbai has not only been able to ensure its commitment to a thriving environment for its citizens but also align to its climate change commitments especially in line as a C40 city in this region”.
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“We congratulate Mumbai for this milestone endeavor and look forward to continuing our collaboration and partnership to further implement the outcomes of the M-CAP,” she added.