Mumbai's Unsustainable Growth: A Threat to its Future
Mumbai's pursuit of economic growth is coming at the cost of its sustainability, threatening the city's future. The city's authorities have failed to address its ecological challenges, and the consequences are already being felt.
MumbaiSustainabilityEcologyEconomyClimate ChangeReal Estate MumbaiAug 05, 2024
The city's rivers have retaining walls to hold rainwater, stormwater drains are annually desilted, spending hundreds of crores, and water pumps have been installed at many locations to throw the rainwater into the Arabian Sea. However, the city has lost a staggering 2,028 hectares of green cover in just five years from 2016 to 2021 for infrastructure projects.
Its complex system of watercourses lies fractured. Two years ago, the Maharashtra government made it legally possible for Mumbai's real estate developers to construct on every inch of their plots without leaving any open space. Where will the rainwater go?
Mumbai's economy is growing, but the city is neither sustainable nor entirely liveable except for those at the top of the economic pyramid. Detaching the economy from the quality of life for the working millions in a city of nearly 21 million and delinking it from its natural ecological template only sets it up for worse times ahead.
The Mumbai Climate Action Plan, released two years ago, suggested ways forward for the city's ecology. However, it is not a statutory plan, which means the State government and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) are not bound to follow it. Mumbai's Development Plan 2014-34, finalised in 2017-18, focused on the use and zoning of land as if the city was in an ecological vacuum.
The ambitious target set by the NITI Aayog and repeated by the State government Mumbai's GDP was pegged at $140 billion in 2023 and, as the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), was projected to touch $300 billion by 2030. How the city's economy can flourish when it does not even pretend to factor in ecological challenges is anyone's guess.
The political economy of Mumbai prefers it this way allow the blitzkrieg of glamour to build the perception of the city and cover up its gritty underbelly with grandiose announcements. To this deadly mix, another layer has been added in recent years the quiet spiriting away of some of its defining industries by the BJP-led government at the Centre and in the State.
The city's growth can be seen in two phases. One, in the post-Independence decades during which its booming economy was driven by the manufacturing sector, when the city grew geographically into suburbs such as Malad, Borivali, and Mulund. The other was the post-liberalisation phase during which the manufacturing sector gave way to the services sector, to the informalisation of work and post-industrial urbanisation.
Mumbai continues to house more than 54 per cent of its population—an astonishing 11 million people—in slums. Affordable housing within city limits is only a political slogan. The city's skyline changed in upscale and middle-class areas. However, those living on its margins—in slums and almost-forgotten suburbs like Govandi and Mankhurd where community toilet floors have given way and killed people, and good schools are a distant dream—live in a different Mumbai; nothing has changed for them.
then, there is the isolationist approach of detaching Mumbai from the MMR, when Mumbai's economy and life are closely tied to the larger metropolitan region. The MMR has a total of nine municipal corporations, several municipal councils, and village panchayats, for which a regional plan was drawn up by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, but it is grandly independent of Mumbai's plans.
Within Mumbai too, there has been a steady and marked shift from the old downtown to the suburbs, which have seen a proliferation of business districts and the entrenchment of the creative-entertainment industry. A corresponding shift in governance attention and resource allocation by the BMC is missing. For example, at the height of air pollution in 2023, the civic body deployed six mist vans to keep the dust down; three moved along the sea-abutting areas that had the least polluted air even as the worst polluted were left to their fate.
The governance of Mumbai has to take the blame for the city's condition. Key civic services are with the BMC, but some areas and projects are exclusively governed by autonomous bodies that have no accountability to the city's elected body or by special purpose vehicles where people's voices are not represented.
Mumbai's suburban railway system, servicing 7.5 million commuters every day over nearly 100 km, is yet to see a massive investment that would improve the one- or two-hour commutes. The distressing economic inequality and ecological slide cannot but touch the iconic Mumbai quality of embracing strangers, making space despite the crunch, and folding in different strains of music, life, and food unto itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main issue with Mumbai's growth?
Mumbai's growth has come at a significant cost to its sustainability, threatening the city's future.
What is the impact of the Maharashtra government's decision to allow developers to construct on every inch of their plots?
The decision has led to a loss of green cover and has put a strain on the city's water resources.
What is the Mumbai Climate Action Plan?
The Mumbai Climate Action Plan is a plan released two years ago that suggested ways forward for the city's ecology. However, it is not a statutory plan, and the State government and BMC are not bound to follow it.
What is the ambition of the NITI Aayog and the State government for Mumbai's GDP?
The NITI Aayog and the State government have pegged Mumbai's GDP at $140 billion in 2023 and project it to touch $300 billion by 2030 as the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
What is the impact of the isolationist approach of detaching Mumbai from the MMR?
The isolationist approach has led to a lack of coordination between Mumbai and the MMR, which are closely tied economically and demographically.
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