Pune Rivers in 2024: Floods, flies, bloodworms and threats to riverine areas | Pune news

Water everywhere

Most of the water networks are largely neglected by Pune Municipal Corporation and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. Streams and tributaries joining the main channel are not considered. If they are managed well, the floods in the river will also be managed well. Other than Ekta Nagari on the Mutha river which has been flooded the most, if we identify the places other than Ekta Nagari, the places which have flooded or increased are far away from the main rivers. These flood-affected housing societies were on the banks of rivers and the rivers flowed into these rivers, which shows the carrying capacity of the rivers. During the July flood, there was a flood inside Yerwada prison, which is far from the river. It had nothing to do with it original flood But it was probably caused by streams that were diverted or altered in some way so that water entered the prison.

It is a terrible situation if the prison where the prisoners have to be evacuated due to flood. Subsequently, a PMC report in response to an RTI filed by Vivek Velankir showed that the former agreed and accepted that the flood was caused by encroachment. Therefore, it has been formally agreed that there is encroachment and some action should be taken. They are now working on developing flood control procedures.

Polluted water

In July 2024, a report by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) talked about water quality. Expansion of Mula-Mutha and Pavana. It shows that the core is still in priority 2, which is “highly polluted” but the “most polluted” area is Mutha where not much work has been done to improve pollution levels in the past year. There were two pollution indicators that worried citizens. The first was an unnaturally large number of flies that built walls and attacked people. The second was in April at Hinjewadi, where, before entering the original Pune city, a housing society of 15,000 people noticed bloodworms in their water. A housing complex has a filter and then, each building has its own filter. Then, every house has a filter. However, these bloodworms escaped into household tap water.

There may be a leakage in the pipe, but the main reason is that the radish is taking water from the river.
If this kind of water pollution has entered our homes, the question arises that what are we doing to reduce the pollution? This year a research paper was published on the pollution of Khadakwasala catchment area.

Where is the water security?

India is known as a water scarce country. During the extreme summer months, across India, there is water scarcity and over-extraction of groundwater. We are one of the largest groundwater extractors in the world. Even though there is a chain of dams upstream from Khadakwasala to Pavana to Mooli, the same is happening in Pune city. The increase of water tankers every year is a big problem. Where the PMC water supply does not reach, all peri-urban areas depend on alternative water supply, either from tankers or borewells that dry up in summer or from polluted rivers that are picked up and treated. The PMC has not been able to deliver services to the people and the basic right to drinking water has become a challenge for the authorities. Deprived of the right to drinking water in developing areas. Villages in Pune metropolitan area are not supplied with water by PMC. The Pune Metropolitan Area Development Authority does not have its water source.

The water resources department has refused to give more water. It simply means that the priorities are not to provide the basics but to provide the aesthetics. A groundwater cell was launched in PMC last year, which is probably the first of its kind in the country.

Roots and branches

Let’s talk about cutting trees. There has been a lot of tree felling and in 2023 the Bombay High Court ordered the PMC to stop cutting trees on Ganeshkhind Road. In October this year, the National Green Tribunal, West Region Bench, had directed the PMC to submit a revised proposal regarding felling of trees for construction of Sadhu Vaswani Railway Overbridge. Unfortunately, the Tree Act that used to support old-growth trees and heritage trees has been amended. It makes me so sad that people are now allowed to cut these. Nothing has yet been done about riparian zone protection along the river banks. From the perspective of the river, there has been little conservation or conservation work done by urban local bodies. Spring restoration programs are not being carried out by urban local bodies.

Feel the heat

The heat island effect is increasing in Pune, especially in the Koregaon Park areas, where recently, embankments were built. Koregaon Park used to be green and pristine and, this year, it was among the hottest areas in Pune. Air quality has also been affected.

Looking ahead

1) The stand taken by the PMC committee will be taken by them Flood control works. In June, there was also a Bombay High Court order, according to which we should expect the water resources department to demarcate revised flood lines by 2025. We hope that flood lines will be respected – meaning no encroachment on the river. – and people will be protected from floods.

2) Construction of embankment along PMC and PCMC has been started by river bank development this year. The core has rich riverine vegetation, with many old trees here. Let’s see how many trees will be cut for riverfront development this year. Now it can be seen that excavation and dumping work has started by placing JCB from Wakad to Sangvi. . Until now, most of the land with green cover was under defense. Now both the urban local bodies have taken approval and the defense has given the riverside land for riverside development.

3) What is not even at the policy level is the lack of protection of aquatic life. We have laws to protect the tiger and the Great Indian Bustard, and this is essential. But, have you ever heard of conserving a single fish? If policy makers include the right to fish and aquatic life in 2025, I can assure you that conservation and restoration methods will automatically follow.