Mumbai, Oct 19 Fishing community has opposed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s first large-scale seawater desalination plant proposed at Manori in north Mumbai and intensified their agitation.
Fishermen’s bodies cited potential damage to marine biodiversity, threats to traditional fishing livelihoods and concerns over the project’s cost and the city’s water management.
On Monday, organisations representing fishermen took out a protest march to the Mumbai suburban district collector’s office at Bandra.
A delegation led by Congress MLA Bhai Jagtop submitted a set of demands to Mumbai suburban collector Saurabh Katiyar.
The delegation included representatives of fishermen’s organisations and cooperative societies from Gorai, Manori, Madh, Uttan, Pali, Dongri and Chowk villages.
Despite the ongoing Navratri festival, a large number of women and men from the fishing community participated in the protest.
The fishing community has demanded that the construction of the project on the Revenue Department’s land be stopped until their objections are addressed and the environmental impact of the project is examined. They have also demanded a meeting with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
This was the second protest march against the proposed plant in October. Earlier this month, a morcha was taken to the local tehsildar office.
The Mumbai civic body has proposed to set up a seawater desalination plant to produce 200 million litres of potable water per day in its initial phase, with infrastructure designed for expansion to 400 MLD in future, to overcome the shortage of drinking water in the metropolis.
Devendra Damodar Tandel, president of the All Maharashtra Fishermen Action Committee, told PTI that they have demanded suspension of construction activity until all concerns and objections raised by the fishing community are resolved.
“Fishermen fear that changes to the marine environment could adversely affect fish resources and their traditional means of livelihood,” he said.
Tandel also sought the intervention of the state government and questioned the need for the project when substantial quantities of water could potentially be saved by reducing leakage in the city’s distribution network.
He claimed Collector Katiyar expressed his inability to stop the work and assured the delegation that its demands would be conveyed to the government.
“Merely assuring us of a meeting with the Chief Minister is not enough. The administration must take a concrete stand when people’s livelihoods are under threat,” Tandel said.
He said the highly saline water discharged during the desalination process could affect the marine ecosystem and fishing activities, threatening the livelihoods of communities that have depended on the sea for generations.
He also questioned the economic viability of the proposed plant, which is estimated to cost more than Rs 3,000 crore and entail an annual electricity expenditure of around Rs 147 crore.
According to Tandel, BMC’s own reports state that there is a 10 per cent water leakage and loss.
“If BMC addresses this leakage and loss of water, it would save around 845 million litres per day (MLD), which will double the quantity of water desalinated at the proposed plant and at much lesser cost, as compared to the project cost,” Tandel said.
He said that in the meeting, they also raised concerns over reports of prehistoric tools being found near the proposed project site and sought an inquiry into the area’s archaeological significance and the protective measures taken.
In December 2023, the civic body invited bids to set up, operate, and maintain the desalination plant for 20 years.
Earlier, the BMC had said that the proposed plant, with a capacity of 200 MLD water per day, will require a capital investment of Rs 1,600 crore and Rs 1,920 crore in operational costs for a period of 20 years.
Currently, the seven reservoirs of Bhatsa, Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, Modak Sagar, Tansa, Vihar and Tulsi have a combined useful storage capacity of 14.47 lakh million litres and supply around 4,000 million litres of potable water daily to Mumbai.
(PTI News)
