English
Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on Saturday said that a major portion of south Mumbai, including the business district of Nariman Point and state secretariat Mantralaya, will go under water by 2050 due to the rising sea level. Speaking at the launch of Mumbai Climate Action Plan and its website at the hands of Maharashtra Environment and Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray on Friday, Chahal said about 70 per cent of the city’s A, B, C and D wards in south Mumbai will be under water due to climate change.
He said that nature has been giving warnings, but if people do not “wake up” then the situation would turn “dangerous”. “Eighty per cent of the areas like Cuffe Parade, Nariman Point and Mantralaya will be under water…Means going to disappear,” he said. The civic chief also said that it is a matter of just 25-30 years as 2050 is not too far. “We are getting warnings from nature and if we do not wake up, it will be a dangerous situation for the next 25 years. And it will not only be the next generation but the current generation will also suffer,” Chahal warned.
He said that Mumbai is the first city in South Asia that is preparing its climate action plan and acting on it. “Earlier, we used to hear about climate change events like melting glaciers, but not directly affecting us. But now it has come to our doorstep,” he added.
Chahal said that last year for the first time in 129 years, a cyclone (Nisarga) hit Mumbai and thereafter in the last 15 months, there have been three cyclones. After that, on August 5, 2020, about 5 to 5.5 feet water was accumulated at Nariman point. “There was no cyclone warning that day, but considering the parameters, it was a cyclone,” Mr Chahal said.
Highlighting that the city has witnessed some extreme weather conditions recently, he said that the city faced Tauktae cyclone in Mumbai and witnessed 214 mm rain on May 17, though monsoon arrives here on June 6 or 7. Before June 9, Mumbai recorded 84 per cent of the June rainfall and in July, 70 per cent of month’s average rainfall was received in just four days – from July 17 to 20, he said.
Under the Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP), the data assessment has identified areas and communities most vulnerable given increasing climate uncertainty, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said in a release.
(Based on PTI inputs)
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