Clocks ticking as Mumbai struggles to dispose of waste….Viju B & Sharad Vyas
Crying Need For Long-Term Solution
Crying Need For Long-Term Solution
Mumbai: The city seems to be indefatigable when it comes to churning out waste and planners are at a loss over zeroing in on a long-term, environment-friendly solution to the effective disposal of solid waste.
A 10-year projection of Mumbais sewage disposal pattern presents a grim picture: The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) is likely to generate solid waste of 11,496 tonnes by the end of this year and it would increase by 50 % at the end of the decade. To dump all the garbage, the city has only two-and-a-half landfills at its disposal: one at Deonar, the second at Mulund and the third at Kanjurmarg, half of which has been shut down. Even the plan to close half of the Deonar plant is almost complete and the Kanjurmarg landfill, which is partially operational, has come up on a mangrove stretch, destroying acres of the trees.
The Deonar site will be able to dispose of 2,000 tonne waste, Kanjurmarg 4,000 and Mulund will take care of another 1,000 tonne garbage. That leaves 4,000 tonne garbage to be recycled, said a civic official. Civic officials also admitted that solid waste collected from across the city was merely being dumped at the Deonar and Mulund sites and the garbage was not properly disposed of. Both the sites are overflowing with waste. The other dumping site at Kanjurmarg is not fully operational. We are staring at a huge problem, an official said.
To tackle the piling crisis, suggestions have been pouring in at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, advising the civic officials about possible solutions. Dr Sandeep Rane, founder president of an NGO, Smoke-Affected Residents Forum, proposed that the BMC should set up a smaller organic recycling plant at each neighbourhood and these units should be able to recycle 50-100 tonne waste. One should think of multipronged approach to solve the complex problem, said Rane who took the lead in the movement to shut down the toxic Deonar landfill.
Civic activists and environmentalists proposed that the authorities should encourage residential buildings to set up compost pits in their backyards. Setting up of waste disposal units away from the city limits was another suggestion. We need to think of radical solutions or the city will have garbage dumped all over the place, posing health and environmental hazard, said Rishi Agarwal, secretary of the Mangrove Society of India.
Nearly a decade after the BMC decided to remove the stench-emanating community bins and replace them with a door-to-door collection system, waste management has not become any better.
When the BMC replaced the community bins with the point-to-point system of collection of garbage, residents in posh areas used their clout to arm-twist the civic authorities to remove the stinky bins from their areas first. Builders didnt want them in front of their latest projects, said an official. The point-to-point collection system, introduced first as part of the cleanliness and sanitation bylaws in 2006, has not managed to reach out to all the corners of the city. Under the Parivartan Prakalp, the idea was to ensure garbage was not dumped on the roads, but that it was sent from the housing society straight to the dumping yard.
However, the system has failed in wards dominated by slums. It is also crippled by citizens who miss on handing over their days waste to sweepers knocking on their doors every morning, said an official.
Times View
Solid waste generation in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region is expected to rise at an alarming rate over the next decade. This calls for an urgent, effective and ecofriendly solution to the problem of waste disposal. Even as the city faces a space crunch for more landfills, haphazard planning by the authorities and the reluctance of citizens to have a dumping yard in their backyard have only added to the problem. Such differences need to be set aside before it is too late and the entire city turns into a garbage bin.
Solid waste generation in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region is expected to rise at an alarming rate over the next decade. This calls for an urgent, effective and ecofriendly solution to the problem of waste disposal. Even as the city faces a space crunch for more landfills, haphazard planning by the authorities and the reluctance of citizens to have a dumping yard in their backyard have only added to the problem. Such differences need to be set aside before it is too late and the entire city turns into a garbage bin.