Navi Mumbai: As CIDCO levels land to construct new airport, nearby villages face flooding

Wet sheets of paper being dried inside a classroom at Kombudbhuj Zilla Parishad School, which got flooded during rains. Amit Chakravarty

A TEARY-EYED Kanchan Mhatre of Dungi village in Navi Mumbai is hanging out soggy clothes to dry, among a series of other household objects kept out in the feeble sunlight. She blames the City Industrial and Development Corporation (CIDCO) for her misery.

“We have not slept at peace since it started raining on Sunday night. Water flooded half the house, it spoilt my foodgrain, bed, furniture and clothes. When the water didn’t recede even on Monday evening, I feared for my young daughter’s life. I eventually ran to a friend’s house in another village to seek refuge,” she says.

While Mumbai saw 10 deaths in over 24 hours during the season’s heaviest downpour on Sunday and Monday, residents of Dungi and Pargaon villages in Navi Mumbai say the conditions were terrifying for them, as their houses are located within 100 meters of where CIDCO has started ground-levelling work for building the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA). Residents said the levelling work has blocked drainage channels for the village, causing waterlogging.

Sridhar Patil, who owns nine acres of rice fields in Dungi village, says farming this season may become difficult. “I grow about 20 quintals of rice each year. We cultivate rice between June and September and now is the time for sowing. But our fields already have three to four feet of water, which I fear has spoilt the quality of the soil, making it inappropriate to sow now.”

CIDCO is required to fill land to a height of about 5.5 metres before work on the airport can start. In May this year, Dungi and Pargaon villagers had warned CIDCO that they may face flooding during rains due to the ongoing work.
“In spite of being in a low lying area, our village was never flooded before. The authorities have ignored our drainage system while conducting levelling work. This is why we are now having to install pumps to draw out water each time it rains,” claims Dhanaji Patil, who shifted with his family to an alternative location in Navi Mumbai on Monday night after their house flooded.

Residents say the stormwater brings poisonous snakes, insects and worms into their houses. Some families of Dungi and Pargaon villages have shifted to Karanjale node where they have had to take houses on rent. Others who cannot afford the rent are building another floor on their homes where they can shift electronic items, kitchen utensils and grain stocks.

“At least 40 to 50 chicken and hens I owned died in the flood. I am not prepared to handle another monsoon,” says Vinod Takekar, a resident of Pargaon. As Dungi and Pargaon villages are not included in the airport area, CIDCO has neither promised to rehabilitate the villagers nor offered them any compensation package.

For residents of another village in Kombudbhuj, there is no respite from flooding. Having experienced waist-deep water on June 9, they refused to move out on Monday. “The school declared a holiday when it started raining heavily. We all refused to move out and tied our vehicles so that they do not get affected. We are living under threat,” says Bhushan Koli, a resident of Kombudbhuj.

Prajakta Lavangare, Joint Managing Director of CIDCO, said: “According to the technical study conducted by Central Water Research Institute of Pune, villages around the airport are not getting flooded due to the airport construction work. The storm water from southern side of Navi Mumbai is getting parked here. We had already taken measures to ensure it that these villages do not flood by constructing hoarding ponds and making culverts. However, we will observe the situation in these villages during monsoons and take constructive action.”

A senior CIDCO official said that though they provide pipes in the villages to drain out excess water, some flooding may happen. “We have opened their culverts and taken the required steps to ensure proper drainage of water. However, as it is a low-lying area, this problem will continue.”