Mitigating climate change, flooding among BMC’s priorities: officials

The summit saw global experts sharing their concern about mitigating climate change and flooding in Asian cities as well as drawing solutions that would become the cities more resilient towards adverse climatic conditions.

Speaking at the session, P Velrasu, Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects) said that Mumbai is drawing experiences from countries like Japan, towards adapting mitigating measures.

“The BMC is serious about mitigating climate change. Inspired by other countries, we have been able to set up underground water holding tanks at Hindmata, and Milan Subway in Mumbai. These tanks have proven to be effective and have helped in curbing down waterlogging in the areas that used to see heavy flooding during monsoon,” said Velrasu.

He also maintained that there is an immediate need for the political leadership of a state or a country to get involved towards formulating the policies for mitigating climate change.

“Issues related to climate change mostly stay as an academic exercise and the political leadership joins very late. We don’t need to spend lots of money towards mitigating climate change as some policy tweaking could solve the issues easily. We need to understand each city is different. Therefore consistent ground-level intervention is required from all levels of the administration,” he said.

Harshita Narwekar, former corporator from Cuffe Parade, who was also part of the panel said that a core committee needs to be formed that would encourage participation from all the sections of society.

“There is a need to bring all the agencies in one platform, following which a location specific study of the cities could also be carried out, following which infrastructure-based intervention could be made,” Narwekar.

“At present, community engagement is missing from our part and involving private sector enterprises as part of climate financing is also important,” she said.

Speaking at the event, Dr. Yasukata Fukahori, the consulate general of Japan said that there is a need for a mass transportation system in Mumbai, which will benefit the overall environment.
“The mass transportation system has caused air to become cleaner in Tokyo. That is why, the Japanese government is coordinating with Mumbaikars towards developing the MTHL and Mumbai Metro. These projects will benefit the environment by bringing down carbon emission,” said Dr. Fukahori.