Er. Ramesh Bamble (Ex. Deputy Municipal Commissioner, MCGM) is the chairman of the Indian Water Works Association’s Mumbai center and is working on a World Bank-funded project under the government of Maharashtra for providing water to remote villages. His talk on February 19th, 2020, described how sewage is managed in a metropolitan city like Mumbai which is also the financial capital of India.
Initially, he told how Mumbai was being constructed by the reclamation of seven islands and further described the stages of development of sewerage systems starting from the 18th century. The first sewage treatment plant was constructed in 1910. The 1960s saw three primary treatment plants being constructed in Khar, Versova, and Ghatkopar. There was a major development in the year of 1979 wherein an integrated master plan for sewage collection, treatment, and disposal was developed till the year 2005.
He showed the seven major zones of Mumbai and discussed the population, volume of daily discharge, existing sewer network coverage, and treatment technologies used in each of them. Further, he described the objectives of three major stages of development of the sewage network in Mumbai. He also explained the roles and responsibilities of engineers and workers at Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai for managing such a vast network.
He further discussed the expansion plan of these facilities in terms of increasing the number and capacity for catering to the people living here. This was explained using the demographic distribution of population sections and the volumetric basis of discharge. Conventional and advanced methods for laying this network and practical difficulties faced during planning and execution were shared by him.
It was great having him, and participants were curious to know more about policies and steps taken to maintain smooth operation, environmental challenges faced during treatment. This session was elemental to shed light on sanitation networks and management practices in densely populated urban areas having space constraints in developing countries.