Unplanned metropolitan growth and potential risks !

The city continues to grow in an unprecedented manner.  A Mumbai resident will constantly see the network of skyscrapers spreading around at a high speed, flyovers being built at various places and roads being dug up everywhere. The topic of today's article is about the unplanned growth of Mumbai and how administration should carefully plan the basic facilities required for this humongous growth.  

Water supply 

The first thing that comes to mind is how the administrators are going to meet the ever growing water needs of this city? Everything will work well only if the catchment area that supplies water to Mumbai receives proper rainfall and all futuristics water supply schemes planned (keeping this growing population in mind) are completed on time. But if unfortunately we face a year when the rain in the catchment area fail to meet average by significant margin then it is likely going to result in emergency like situation. By giving priority to the water supply of Mumbai over  that of the rest of the cities and villages in the surrounding area the impact of this situation can be reduced but it will be an ethically wrong thing to do. 

Few builders show awareness about Rainwater Harvesting. But it needs to be implemented more widely. Rather than keeping it optional, it should be made mandatory.  

Plastic use and waste management 

Plastic ban has recently become a temporary phenomenon. After some time suddenly the administration wakes up and  plastic ban is announced. After some time, things go back to normal . Hoping that the occupants of high-rise buildings have civic sense, special efforts should be made for them to show awareness about minimising plastic usage.  

The same thing can be seen as far as sorting the waste into dry and wet is concerned. it should reach the dustbin only after it is segregated into dry and wet components. I faile to understand why stricter rules are not enforced in this matter. If every citizen spares a few minutes for this in daily life, we can make a big contribution to save the environment. 

Power supply 

Summers in Mumbai city are getting hotter every year. Earlier, ACs were used only in the month of May, but nowadays it is almost impossible to sit in a house without an air conditioning system for most of the months of the year. As the new generation spends their days in air-conditioned classrooms right from school, they may feel that sitting in a house without AC is a violation of human rights!! A very large amount of additional electricity generation is required to maintain the air-conditioning system of the large number of flats created in these buildings. These modern houses need power supply for everything. At the same time, in many of these buildings, the first seven-eight floors are reserved for parking. In many buildings, the cars of the residents are lifted up and down with the help of this elevator. 

Buildings require a constant supply of large amounts of electricity to the elevators to move residents, Istriwalas, Zomato, Amazon delivery guys across these floors. It has become very important to think whether it will be possible to supply this much additional electricity continuously for 24 hours to the city of Mumbai. 

Disaster management is an essential technique of modern times. In the event of an emergency, it is necessary to plan very carefully how the various basic facilities can be kept running smoothly, who will have the decision-making authority. This planning should be documented well and the authority who can declare emergency situation should be clear, periodically reviewed.  

In the event the power supply system to Mumbai is disrupted for a few minutes or hours, we need to know how the lives of the citizens living in these high rise building will affected. Scenarios such as if there is a power outage and the generator system (as a backup plan) is nonfunctional, then it is essential to have a plan for how to safely bring down senior citizens living on higher floors in an emergency. 

Additional stress on transportation 

In these buildings, each flat will have an average of one and a half to two cars. How much consideration has been given to the capacity of the roads to withstand the additional stress if all these vehicles come together during the morning or evening peak hours? The administration tend to constantly dig up roads. Even if a small excavation is done in one part of the road, its cascading effects are experienced over a long distance. These traffic jams around these high-rise buildings are now becoming more frequent. In such a case, ambulances, fire brigade vehicles may face delays in reaching their target which can be fatal. 

Stress on firefighters 

The Mumbai fire brigade has the necessary instruments and skills to reach the topmost floor of the seven- to eight-storey building. They have demonstrated these fire fighting skills in such buildings time and again. We all are really proud of them, but now that there are high rise buildings in different parts of Mumbai city, in the event we have multiple fires in such high rise buildings at the same time at different localities, who knows whether the Mumbai fire brigade has the manpower and equipments required to douse the fire. Have authorities thought about it and planned for this scenario?

Mental health of citizens  

Shouldn't we be thinking deeply about the mental health of elderly citizens who live alone in such buildings? The feeling of being close to the ground is comforting when living on the 5th or 6th floor. At least the citizens of below 70's have the confidence that they can somehow reach the ground floor if any emergency situation arises. But suppose such citizens live on the 50th floor, they will always have the fear that if some untoward incident arises, how can they reach ground floor safely? At the same time, the effects of the gushing wind blowing constantly on these floors on health if such elderly citizens need to be observed over a period of time. 

Future Redevelopment of Skyscrapers  

Generally buildings built in 1980-90 are now going for redevelopment. When these buildings are demolished, the debris generated are dumped in dumping grounds outside the city. Imagine when these 30-40 storey buildings which are being constructed today, go for redevelopment in the next 50 years!! It is unbearable to think how much pollution burden this additional debris will create on our land. 

Open playgrounds for children 

Due to all these high rise buildings, the population is getting concentrated in limited area. Are we providing the necessary grounds for this concentrated population? Fewer grounds will lead to lack of open spaces for children to play and citizens to walk. Exercising in an air-conditioned gym isn't affordable for everyone, and even more, it can't compare to playing in an open space. 

Summary 

Many things around us are mismanaged currently in the city. We see and feel them. But we can't say much about it. Because everyone has resigned to the fact that we can not fight against these mismanaged practices. People either don't have courage to raise voice against it or they are concerned about the consequences of doing so. But when an tragedy hits us, then we all realise that the malpractices known to all of us have caused these tragedies. Mumbai city and its rapidly growing skyscrapers are going to be the source of many such future problems. This post wishes to raise the concern whether the administration is aware of these potential problems, how thoroughly the they has have planned for disaster recovery and whether that planning has been audited. 

If we want to think from the side of the citizens, they need to introspect that we can show the mental toughness / emotional strength required to live in the city of Mumbai in the future. 

Mumbai was a great city, a metropolis to live in for last hundreds of years. It is the responsibility of all of us to ensure that we hand it over to over next generation in a decent state.