“How Navi-Mumbai came into existence” – Local Gyan – 23rd August
– A special awareness session was organized at our Shakti Centre by three representatives of Local Gyan, Rajesh Krishnan Sir ,Sonam Ambe Ma’am and Arjun Sir.
– The session began at 2.20 p.m. For our session, we were introduced to the fundamentals of city planning, focusing on land use and urban infrastructure. We explored how Navi Mumbai, unlike a typical greenfield development, was carefully designed by engineers who drew inspiration from Dutch techniques to make the city livable. These complex lessons were simplified for us through lessons in history, geography, science and city planning and in the end some discussions were done on our civic responsibilities. This helped us understand our role in shaping and sustaining our city, Navi-Mumbai.
– The day before our session, we had been given some questions to discuss with our parents, such as, where did our parents live before coming to Navi-Mumbai, why did they move to Navi Mumbai, and what was our grandparents’s original occupation. This helped us understand our family history and the reasons behind their migration to this city. During the session, they shared valuable information about Navi Mumbai and its origin. They raised an important question, since originally Navi-Mumbai was 4.5 meters below sea level, how did it become habitable and why doesn’t the city get flooded every time when it rains heavily?” After giving us around 20 minutes to think about it and come out with solutions, they listened to each one of us for our solutions. One of my classmates had almost the correct solution.
– Then with their beautiful model of mountain,land and sea, they explained the engineering solutions behind it. First, the engineers reclaimed the land from under water by cutting part of the hills and filling the sea area. This raised the land level by about 3.5 meters. To raise the level for the remaining 1 meter , embankments with big rocks, building of dikes and proper drainage systems like pumping stations to pump the water back into the sea were created. Finally, strong protective sea barriers were built to stop high tides from entering the city. The engineers who helped build this beautiful city drew their inspiration from Dutch techniques to make the city livable.Thus the city of Navi-Mumbai came into existence and it took away a large chunk of the burden of the extremely overpopulated Mumbai city. At the end of the session, they also explained why floods occur during heavy rain. They made us realise that plastic waste thrown here and there on the road or in the drain is done by people. This uncivil behaviour of people results in blocked drains, which stops the water from flowing smoothly and causes waterlogging in several areas. We swore we will behave better and throw our garbage in bins and also educate others to do the same.
– The session concluded with students sharing their views. It was indeed a very informative session, where we all learned not only about our families and our city but also about the importance of responsible behaviour to keep our Navi-Mumbai safe.
– The organisation Local Gyan was set up because the founders Rajesh Krishnan & Sonam Ambe believed that problem solving and critical thinking begins with observation.They are based in Vashi,Navi-Mumbai. We are grateful to Rajesh ,Sonam & Arjun for coming to Shaktii Centre and conducting this session so beautifully and making a complex topic into a simple & fun one for the Shaktii girls.
