DANGEROUS WATERS (Originally written 30th Oct. 2006).

Many of you readers are familiar with the Google Earth Software. It is a program which you can download free of cost, from the weblink: http://earth.google.com/ thereby allowing your desktop computer to act like an ‘eye in the sky’. In short, one gets to see the satellite images of the ground by zooming from say 7,000 Kms to as little as 100 Meters above sea level. One such picture of our famous Juhu Main Beach in Mumbai is shown above. The location is, Latitude: 19.109056N, Longitude: 72.829428E as seen from an elevation of 9 Kms. Please remember this free software does not allow real time images.

This wonderful software allows you to locate your home, office, street, in fact almost any place on earth while sitting at ease in your home with a decent desktop computer and a reasonable internet connection. It also has the facility of measuring distances and marking places of interest for your further study … all free of cost. Isn’t it wonderful? A big thank you Google! However, it seems our government, beaureaucarcy, system thinks that our citizens would be still unaware of how this facility can be put to good use. One can view encroachments, mangroves, waterline, forest area, pollution, etc.

If you study the above picture carefully, you will notice that in addition to ‘JUHU MAIN BEACH’, I have marked off, JUHU KOLIWADA NALLA (about 2 KM to the south of the beach), IRLA NALLA (about 2.4 KM to the north of the beach) and the MALAD NALLA (about 5 KM to the north of the beach). The distances are straight line distances measured with the facility available with the software and may be presumed to be fairly accurate, since my trials with measuring street lengths in Juhu area, is found to be accurate.

A closer study of the water colour of the sea will show that dark coloured water seems to flow out of all the Nalla’s into the sea. This pollution can be better viewed by zooming in to 2 Kms. It seems to be spreading from the Malad Nalla and the Irla Nalla down to the Juhu Main Beach. This dirty polluted water is mostly untreated sewage coming form slums, illegal industry, etc. It should be obvious that it will not be safe for humans (or animals), to swim, paddle, bathe or wash anywhere near this whole area. The main beach is right in the centre of this mess and the tides are going to bring the pollution right back to the main beach daily. Yet recently, a leading minister of our Maharashtra State made a comment, that the beach was safe for swimming. Citizens are being misled to think that the water is safe, so one will often see kids, adults, bathing in the beach water. Little do they know the danger of the filth and pollution, which is neither measured, nor stopped. Why citizens are kept unaware of the serious risk to the health of their families? Why is the Nalla water not aerated / treated? Why is it released so close to the beach line? Can our Chief Minister answer or clarify the situation? Must activists file RTI applications and visit the Courts with a PIL? Should the Courts interpret the law, write new laws and even administer it?

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