Two decades after deluge: Poisar to Dahisar, river revival at a trickle

Time of India

16 hours ago

Mumbai: When Sagar Vira bought an apartment in Kandivli, he had no idea that his new home was near a river—or even that Mumbai had any rivers. But when he visited his new home to check on renovations, he saw a poster on the gate announcing a 'River March'.
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"That day," he says, "I discovered I was living next to a river called Poisar."
For decades, Mumbai's rivers were perceived as mere nullahs—backyard sewers absorbing the waste of a city. It was the 2005 floods, when the rivers swelled and overflowed that Mumbaikars discovered the existence of the Mithi, Oshiwara, Poisar and Dahisar in the west and Mahul in the east. These rivers originate in the hills of Sanjay Gandhi National Park and flow down through forest and city to meet the Arabian Sea.
Plans to clean and revive the rivers to guard against future flooding and restore ecological balance have since moved slowly, especially on the Poisar.
Encroachments on Poisar
The river's 1,192-crore project, first tendered in 2019 and given environmental clearance last year, includes removing encroachments, building retaining walls, and constructing sewage treatment plants (STPs) to divert and clean the waste going into the river.
So far, retaining walls have been built, and some trash booms installed to collect dry waste.
But the river has not been widened, nor has the water quality improved, says Vira. "Untreated sewage from slums continues to flow in the river," he says. Construction work on treatment plants has recently begun.
"The BMC has taken up the Poisar rejuvenation work without removing all the encroachments," says BJP MLA Atul Bhatkalkar.
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With most slumdwellers unwilling to move far, and few alternative houses available in the area, they should be declared project affected persons and moved into nearby permanent transit camps, he adds.
Some widening work has been done near the sea, Bhatkalkar adds, but service road work is still pending.
Dahisar's walls
There's been more progress on Dahisar River, where encroachments are fewer and have largely been removed.
Two STPs are almost complete. However, local resident Gopal Jhaveri points out that the tabelas (cow sheds) continue to discharge untreated waste.
Like Vira, Jhaveri is sceptical of the concrete walls built along the river. They prevent water entering the river and lead to water flowing on to the roads instead, he says, causing flooding in Daulat Nagar, Ashokvan and Leprosy Colony. "The concrete wall has converted the river into a gutter," he says.
Changing Oshiwara's course
Oshiwara is the shortest of the rivers in the western suburbs. At Dindoshi in Goregaon, heavy rains bring to life a little-known waterfall that flows down into what is popularly known as Walbhat nullah. The waterfall is a popular trekking destination and the river flows into Aarey Colony, then crosses the railway line before joining the sea.
Most encroachments here have been moved, according to officials, and STPs are under construction.
However, the river's course has been changed near Gokuldham due to land being reclaimed, says Sandeep Sawant, a resident of Nagari Nivara. "At Ram Mandir, pillars are being erected on the riverbed.," he says, adding, "All this naturally reduces the width of the river."
Additional Municipal Commissioner Abhijit Bangar acknowledges that works are pending. Once the STPs are complete, he says, the idea is to create riverfronts like the Sabarmati waterfront in Ahmedabad.
The widely criticised concrete walls, he says, currently prevent the re-entry of encroachers onto the river. With development along the rivers in many places, there's barely any space left to create service roads, say officials. "A riverbank on either side is a tall order," an official says.