Community campaign set to control worrying pollution of Dahisar River

Indira Bhendersquos collection of photographs reveal the dismal tale of the Dahisar Riverrsquos decline from a thriving water body to gutterlike state A 1943 painting by Sawlaram Haldankar shows a bridge built by the Portuguese over it The pastoral setting is contrasted by modernday scenes of the trashchocked river that form exhibits at a twoday community workshop that kicked off on Thursday hosted by five organisations at the Maharashtra Nature Park MNP in Dharavi Bhende the first Dahisar resident to initiate a campaign to save the urban river was supported by 3D models by participating architectsThe ldquodialogue on the future of Mumbairsquos riversrdquo included hosts MNP Water Environs River March National Environmental Engineering Research Institute NEERI and the Indian Habitat Forum INHAFL R Ajay Nayak Kimaya Keluskar Apoorva Iyengar and Vikram Pawar of Water Environs with an architectural model of urbanisation on the banks of the Dahisar river PicsSatej ShindeThe workshop titled Riverse comes after the Rs 150crore Dahisar revival project proposed by the area MLA Manisha Chaudhuri The 12kmlong river which originates from Tulsi Lake inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park is clean until it exits the sanctuaryrsquos boundaries After that a spell of pollutants is dumped into the river until it joins the Gorai CreekThe budget was intended to transform the River into a tourist attraction with a mangrove park boating and kayaking options and a marine interpretation centre In October 2015 chief minister Devendra Fadnavis urged the BMC to carry forward the riverrsquos resuscitation plan But stakeholders at the workshop were cynical of the statersquos effortldquoThe top down approach does not always work since there is no ownership of infrastructure in the city We need to activate communities and immediate neighbourhoodsrdquo said architect Kimaya Keluskar founder member of Water Environs Avinash Kubal deputy director of MNP said ldquoConcrete walls built on either side of the river can kill it Rather than just engineering methods we also need to come up with biological systems as solutionsrdquoLed by the Waterman of India Rajendra Singh the workshop saw the participation of local representatives from institutions and settlements along the riverbanks including Sr Shalini Sebastian from Pushpa Vihar a leprosy colony and Rajkumar Singh Thakur the owner of a tabela in Daulat Nagar The dialogue between citizens and MLA Pravin Darekar was intended to provide solutions to fight pollution for each segment of the river and not derive a homogenous solution ldquoTake the case of the Sabarmati While the river has been beautified the people who lived along its banks have been displaced A proposal that looks at propelling tourism is disconnected from the communities and the need to cleanse waterrdquo said KeluskarTo this effect Dahisar River has been divided by Water Environs into six parts the dhobi ghats informal settlements tabelas the flyover the promenade and the Dahisar gaothan in order to address each arearsquos specific issues Tabela owner Thakurrsquos solution for instance is to send the dung generated by his 2500 cattle to a village in Junnar where it is converted into biogas Several other tabela owners choose to dump the dung into the riverBut why focus on Dahisar River and not on the infamous Mithi was a question on several minds ldquoEveryone talks about the Mithi and many plans have been proposed for it but in vain With Dahisar we still see hope since it is not as badly offrdquo said architect Ajay Nayak of Water EnvironsThe workshop concluded with the Declaration for Revival of Mumbairsquos Rivers a plan which participants said will be made public next week