E-Paper
3 wards in Mumbai with most civic plaints have most containment zones
Three of the five wards that have the highest number of containment zones in Mumbai also had most complaints related to poor civic management such as water shortage,
Three of the five wards that have the highest number of containment zones in Mumbai also had most complaints related to poor civic management such as water shortage, bad state of public toilets, overflowing drains and irregular collection of garbage between January and December 2019, according to NGO Praja’s report released on Tuesday. These wards are L (Kurla), M-East (Govandi) and S (Bhandup). The spokesperson of BMC said they do not want to comment on the report.
The NGO claimed this points towards a correlation between civic issues not being resolved (poor maintenance and hygiene in the area) and outbreak of a pandemic. Following the three wards are K-West ward covering Andheri West, Oshiwara and R-South ward covering Kandivli.
The report reveals that only 18% of public and community toilets in the five wards were connected to the sewer system, compared to 33% in rest of the wards.
Also, one-third of total complaints of overflowing or choked drains and garbage not collected and one-fourth of the total toilet-related complaints were from these five wards.
The NGO claims that as of June 24, the five wards had 8,930 complaints in 2019 relating to shortage of water supply, toilets, choked drainage and garbage collection against 22,760 similar complaints in the rest of the city.
Nitai Mehta, founder trustee, Praja Foundation in the report, said, “While the entire world is grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic, water, sanitation and hygiene (Wash) have gained immense importance in prevention of the disease. It is unfortunate that provision of water supply, proper sanitation and solid waste management (SWM), which are key determinants of health and also the most basic services, are brought to importance only at the time of a crisis. This is not just about the pandemic. A high number of infections and deaths are regularly reported due to water contamination, poor sanitation and mismanaged waste.”
Mehta said, “For example, the water quality tests of BMC showed 1% unfit water samples in 2018-2019, but there were 1,03,509 reported cases of diarrhoea, 21 cases of cholera, and 4,280 cases of typhoid in the same period. These services are therefore the most basic requirements for good health and good quality of life.”
Further, the number of civic complaints has increased from 92,329 in 2017, 1.16 lakh in 2018 to 1.28 lakh in 2019. The percentage of complaints closed has increased to 96% in 2019, compared to 83% in 2018 and 77% in 2017. Roads, drainage, water supply and solid waste management continue to remain the top four complaints, it states.
Yogesh Desai, a civic activist from Andheri, said, “There might be an improvement in closing the number of complaints, but we also need to know how many complainants were satisfied with it.”
The report claims that the BMC launched a 24x7 water supply project in 2014, but the average time for which water supply was received in 2018 was only 5.9 hours. Of the 273 zones, 180 zones (66%) received only upto 4 hours. In terms of public toilets the report states, “Only 1 in 4 public toilets were for women in 2018. There is currently 1 public toilet seat per 696 males and 1,769 females, while the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) prescribes 1 toilet for 100-400 males and 100-200 females, respectively. Results of BMC’s toilet survey in 2015 show only 28% of toilets were connected to the piped sewerage system, 78% had no proper information of water connection available, and 58% of the toilet blocks surveyed had no electricity.”
In this context, the report further adds, “BMC claims 100 % door-to-door collection of waste as on 2018-19. However, of the total 17,116 solid waste management complaints in 2019, 36% were related to garbage not being collected. While BMC citizens’ charter prescribes 1 day to solve issues of garbage collection of garbage, it took 17 days on an average to solve complaints of garbage lifting, 20 days for unattended collection points and 22 days for garbage vehicles not arrived.”
The report further states that in 2018-19, only 28% of the capital budget of the water and sewerage department was spent, while the solid waste management department spent only 23% of its capital budget.
In 2019, attendance of corporators in ward committee meetings was 73% compared to 79% in 2018. A total of 952 questions were raised in 2019, compared to 1,046 in 2018, states the report.
