Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation

A step-by-step guide for COVID patients and their families on what to do during the entire phase from testing to cure

A BMC press note assures citizens of corrective action taken in 169 flood-prone spots and ongoing work at 43 spots, but what Mumbai really needs is sustained, hydrology-based water bodies management.

Little thought is being given to how students of corporation schools will be able to access this, given that for most of them access to quality internet connection and the devices required is severely limited.

Mumbai’s health officials are working on a war footing to ensure containment of the virus by creating containment zones and sanitising entire localities besides extensive screening. But they face a humongous task.

In line with a government decision aimed at promoting tourism, Mumbai — the city that never sleeps — is running a pilot project that allows select malls and eateries to stay open all day and night. A week after the experiment started, we asked citizens and businesses about their experience.

In March 2018, Maharashtra imposed a blanket ban on the use of plastic in the state, particularly in Mumbai. Almost two years later, the city still finds itself grappling with plastic waste, largely due to patchy implementation by BMC and inadequate attention to processing of discarded plastic.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s Smiling School Project will train principals and teachers to identify students facing mental or emotional distress. These students will then receive free counselling. But will it be enough, given the nature and magnitude of the problem?

Mumbai’s Tree Authority had for long led a quiet existence, issuing permissions without fuss to cut trees to make way for the city’s rapid urbanization. People are now looking up to the courts as a last resort to save the green cover of the city.

Around 500 people from different walks gathered at a public hearing on July 8th to raise their voices against the proposed felling of 2702 trees in Mumbai’s Aarey Colony. This is just the most recent example of growing citizen engagement and efforts to save the green cover of the city.

For many Mumbaikars, ‘air pollution’ is a Delhi or at most a North Indian problem. Yet, Mumbai air itself says otherwise on many a day. But are city authorities really aware and equipped to take the steps they need to?

For decades, waste has been Mumbai’s teeming, unsolvable problem. Slums around the city’s dumping ground are now Asia’s largest, exposing ragpickers and the general population to serious health risks. All plans and commitments to waste management, meanwhile, appear figurative.

Mumbai currently sources 3.8 billion litres of water per day from seven dams built over lakes in neighbouring districts. It is also familiar with seasonal water cuts. But why does a city with abundant monsoons and flooding every year have such unstable water supply?