A picture of a river choked with plastic garbage is viral on social media with a claim that it shows the condition of Mithi River in Maharashtra.
BOOM found that the viral picture is from Manila, Philippines and not Mumbai as claimed in the viral posts.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has recently thrown open an east-west connecting road bridge over the Mithi River. The new bridge was constructed in place of the old bridge which had been demolished by the civic body in December 2020, reported Mumbai Mirror.
The viral post meanwhile shares a set of two pictures - one showing the Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad and the other showing a garbage choked river.
Bharatiya Janata Party member Priti Gandhi tweeted the set of pictures with a caption reading 'Pic 1 - Sabaramati Riverfront, Ahmedabad, Gujarat (Fund spent by Gujarat State: ₹1400 crores) Pic 2 - Mithi River, Mumbai, Maharashtra (Funds spent by BMC & MMRDA: ₹1000+ crores) #TaleOfTwoCities #ModiHaiToMumkinHai'.
Click here to see an archive of the post.
The same set of pictures has been shared on Facebook with a similar claim.
Click here to view the post.
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Fact Check
BOOM did a reverse image search on the garbage filled river and found the photo on a 2019 tweet from Norwegian diplomat Erik Solheim sharing a BBC article.
The BBC article on a 'new digital payment system to clean up the environment' shares the same picture with a caption reading 'Many of the poorest communities are the most affected by plastic waste'. The photo credit has been given to Getty Images.
We also found the same photo in an article published in Lonely Planet mentioning it as a stock photo. The caption with the picture reads 'Shanties on stilts standing on a polluted river in the Philippines'.
Furthermore, we did a keyword search and found a similar photo on a stock photo website Shutterstock.
The photo has a caption reading 'A river of garbage prevents the flow of water on January 6, 2008 in Manila, Philippines. Poverty and garbage disposal are major issues in the Philippines'.
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