Ganeshotsav 2023: BMC Fails To Achieve Its Target Of 300 Artificial Ponds For Visarjan

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) this year had set their target to build double artificial ponds. Their target was to build 300 man-made ponds for visarjan of Lord Ganesha this year, but so far they have built only 191 ponds. The officials are stating that they made ponds based on citizen’s demand and as per last year’s idol immersion pattern. Well, this failure of BMC will lead to a large number of idols being immersed in natural water bodies.

Every year in Mumbai around 1.9 lakh idols are submerged in water. Around 1.5 to 1.6 lakh of these are household idols. BMC had decided to carry on Visarjan of these idols in the artificial ponds. The civic authority planned to build 300 more ponds by 2023 in order to accommodate all idols that were shorter than four feet. Plaster of Paris (PoP) has been shown to be bad for natural water bodies. PoP deposited in man-made lakes can be removed considerably more easily. We therefore decided to produce more of them, said a BMC official.

According to BMC representatives, the 300 man-made ponds will facilitate clay disposal while easing the strain on natural water bodies.

Apart from these 191 artificial ponds, there are 69 natural water bodies available across the city for Ganpati Visarjan. BMC decided to build more artificial lakes in areas where immersions exceeded capacity after analysing the trend of last year's immersions.

Former mayor Shubha Raul proposed the idea of artificial ponds in 2008. There were 32 man-made lakes in 2019. In 2020 and 2021, when the COVID-19 epidemic and related limitations on public meetings were happening, there was a five-fold rise. In these two years, man-made ponds hosted more than 50% of immersions.

At first, the BMC prohibited PoP idols, but later, the state government made it clear that there is no such limitation. Even the decision to tag eco-friendly Ganesh Idols was reversed after taking into account public opinion. As a result, the civic body's decision to forbid the immersion of idols less than four feet in non-manmade bodies of water was likewise overturned.