How Mumbai civic agencies took their eyes off waste mountain

 

How Mumbai civic agencies took their eyes off waste mountain

No marshals to monitor garbage dumping, no segregation of waste in slum clusters and non-gated societies, no localised bio-methanation plants, and no penalty for burning garbage — inaction by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on several fronts over the last couple of years has resulted in a sharp dip in air quality in the city this year, much before the onset of winter.

The BMC’s Mumbai Air Pollution Mitigation Plan (MAPMP) released in March this year has identified garbage and solid waste burning in the open as one of the top five sources of air pollution. The other four are: dust arising from construction site and construction debris, road dust and its displacement, usage of unclean fuels in restaurants, dhabas, bakeries and roadside eateries, and a range of industries including those using ready mix concrete plants and casting yard plants.

An Express Series ‘Death by Breath’ launched on October 19 reveals how rising pollution levels in Mumbai over the years has exposed its people, particularly young children, to health hazards with adverse long-term consequences. Over the following days and weeks, the newspaper will report on all aspects of the city’s air pollution crisis and the possible solutions and interventions needed.

One of the key aspects of solid waste management relates to segregation given the increasing quantum of garbage collected by the civic body every year. In 2022-23, BMC collected an average of 6,385 metric tonne a day (MTD) garbage from its 24 municipal wards, 15 per cent more than 2021-22.

While BMC’s waste segregation is restricted to residential buildings and gated societies, more than one-fifth of the waste is collected from just three wards (L, G/North, K/East). Dharavi, the largest slum cluster in the country, falls in Ward G/ North. An official said, “In slum clusters, segregation of waste is not carried out due to lack of awareness. As a result, most people burn the waste.”

Open burning of garbage and solid waste tends to make the air toxic which poses a serious health hazard. “The solid waste being burnt mainly comprises plastic, rubber, polyethylene and paper. Fine particles emitted from these become pollutants which get mixed in the air and make the atmosphere toxic.

The fumes may also lead to formation of carcinogen which causes cancer; thus it can expose a huge base of people including those belonging to vulnerable categories to serious health threats,” Dr. Jalil Parkar, Pulmonologist at Lilavati Hospital.

If the first step in waste management — segregation — is half-done, monitoring has hardly received any attention. In the past, Mumbai has had clean up ‘marshals’ — troops appointed through private agencies to monitor and fine the public for littering, garbage dumping and burning on public spaces. Marshals were first introduced in Mumbai in 2007, but the city doesn’t have any now since the contract with the private agency, which provided manpower, lapsed 18 months ago in March 2022.

When contacted, an official from the civic body’s Solid Waste Management (SWM) said, “A proposal to deploy 30 marshals per municipal ward has been chalked out and the draft has been sent to the Municipal Commissioner. We are expecting the approval within a week following which agency will be appointed.”

So, no marshals, no monitoring, and hence no action. Consider this: As per BMC bye-laws cleared by the state in December 2006, the penalty for disposal of waste by burning was set at Rs 100. Over the last 17 years, while there has been no revision in the penalty amount, the civic body does not have records of any penalty imposed so far either.

An official from the Solid Waste Management department of the BMC said, “Till now, no penalty has been imposed on anybody for burning open garbage, therefore, there is no record for the same. After the MAPMP guidelines came out, we also checked with the ward offices regarding this… In Mumbai, horticultural waste i.e., shrubs and herbs, are also burnt openly. Technically they can’t even be labelled as solid waste.”

Seven years ago, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had in 2016 ordered a nationwide ban on open burning of garbage with a penalty of up to Rs 25,000, labelling it as a major source of air pollution. In its MAPMP this March, the BMC had said the current penalty under the Mumbai cleanliness and sanitation bye-laws would be increased, however, it is yet to be done.

The MAPMP had also said inspection drives will be carried out to identify open spaces where garbage burning is a regular phenomenon and nuisance detectors would be deployed at the ward level to act against those seen dumping and burning solid waste, and littering on roads.

But nothing has moved on the ground. As BMC turned its gaze away, pollution levels jumped in the city. In October this year so far, Mumbai has recorded a 45 per cent increase in PM 2.5 components compared with October last, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). In January and February this year, CPCB data shows a jump of 22 per and 25 per cent in PM 2.5 components, respectively. Of course, the primary sources of PM 2.5 are garbage burning, vehicular emission and combustion, unlike PM 10, which are major fine particles displaced from construction activities.

Abhishek Chakraborty, Professor at IIT Bombay, said activities like open burning of waste are one of the many primary sources for PM 2.5. “The burning spots act like chimneys through which smoke gets dispersed out in the open atmosphere. Items like plastic aren’t very combustion friendly and the emission released interacts with the moisture, makes the air hazardous and very toxic to breathe,”