Private riches, public squalor

When, almost a week after the downpour, the country's commercial capital is unable to get back on its feet, when mounds of garbage pile up unattended in the city's streets, when power remains cut off in many areas, when many suburbs lack adequate drinking water and when several neighbourhoods remain waterlogged, it's very obvious that years of neglecting Mumbai's infrastructure have finally extracted their toll.

True, as the state government and the city administration have been quick to point out, last Tuesday's rains were the worst in a century. But then, Mumbai's infrastructure has always teetered on the point of breaking down during every monsoon. Drains are choked, low-lying areas get flooded and walls and houses collapse every year. The difference last Tuesday was that the excessive rain finally pushed the city over the edge.

What went wrong? To start with, the administration had no plan to tackle the emergency, and was so confused that it could not even arrange to supply basic information about the state of the city's roads and trains, which could have helped not only commuters trapped in their offices but thousands of children stranded in schools.

Days after the downpour, municipal officials continued to be conspicuous by their absence, and even the work of removing dead animals from the streets had to be done by local residents, sparking off fears of an epidemic. But the malaise goes deeper than the inaction of the administration after last Tuesday's rains.

Decades of unregulated development, of cosy deals between unscrupulous builders and politicians, the proliferation of slums, the destruction of the mangrove swamps and the dilution of the coastal regulation zones have all combined to ensure that open lands that acted as sponges for the rain water are no longer available.

Add to that the neglect of the drainage system""the storm water drains are a hundred years old and the sewers were last upgraded ten years ago. The tragedy is that the remedies are well-known""there have been many plans for making Mumbai into a world-class city, McKinsey's Vision Mumbai being one of the latest.

The Prime Minister has gone on record about transforming the city into a Shanghai within five years. But the events of the past week have underlined the divergence between that vision and ground realities. Perhaps what the city needs is not a grand vision, but modest improvements in areas that really matter for the vast majority of the population.

That would include, on a priority basis, upgrading the slums to ensure proper drainage and lighting; ensuring that unregulated building is stopped; ensuring open spaces in every neighbourhood; and improving public transport, especially the suburban railway network. Moreover, we need a system whereby municipal officials are held accountable for their inaction.

The best way to ensure that is to take a leaf out of the "Mohalla committees"""the partnership between local communities and the police that has worked so well in keeping communal peace in the city.

If these communities can be expanded to take responsibility for civic affairs as well, and civic maintenance functions delegated to the ward level, a private-public partnership can emerge that could deliver results.

Sure, the city needs a world-class airport and expressways as well, but it is such out-of-the-box thinking that is needed to make sure that the city's ordinary citizens too benefit. Private riches cannot co-exist with public squalor.