MUMBAI, Aug. 21 -- On Tuesday, the Mithi River did what Mumbai had long feared - it pushed back. After five days of relentless rain, the river surged to 3.9 metres, breaching the Central Railway's 2.7-metre danger mark, submerging tracks and paralysing train services for over eight hours. A 9:16am high tide blocked the floodwaters from draining into the Arabian Sea, forcing the river to back up onto the streets. The overflow flooded parts of Kurla, BKC and Santacruz,. For decades, the Mithi has been treated less like a river and more like a dumping ground. Today, it is choked with untreated sewage, industrial effluents and debris. According to Stalin Dayanand, director of the NGO Vanashakti, "Around 70% of the liquid in the Mithi is sewage, 30% garbage, and 10% industrial discharge." Tuesday's flood wasn't a natural disaster. It was manmade, engineered by years of administrative apathy, unchecked encroachments, and the systematic dismantling of what was once a natural stormwater outlet. P4...