Direct impact of waste incinerator on rising TB cases in Govandi: Residents to HC
Citing health department data, the group has pointed out that M/E Ward alone has seen 1,877 TB-related deaths since 2013, and reports around 5,000 individual cases annually
Mumbai The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) biomedical waste incinerator in Govandi is directly responsible for a rising number of tuberculosis cases in the locality, the civil society group Govandi New Sangam Welfare Society has alleged in an intervention application (IA) submitted before the Bombay High Court last month.
Citing health department data, the group has pointed out that M/E Ward alone has seen 1,877 TB-related deaths since 2013, and reports around 5,000 individual cases annually.
“The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai had undertaken a baseline survey of socioeconomic conditions of M (East) Ward in Mumbai in 2015 titled “Social Economic Conditions and Vulnerabilities” which, in no unclear terms, reported the following concerning overall health status of people residing in M (East) Ward,” the groups application states.
The IA has been filed by the Govandi residents’ society in the matter of Writ Petition No. 2326 of 2019, which was filed by the BMC’s concessionaire, SMS Envoclean, against a July 2019 closure notice issued to it by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB). A year earlier, the MPCB had acted on complaints and inspected the plant, finding rampant non-compliance with waste management rules, including failure to install dioxin and furans control systems, failure to segregate bio-medical waste properly and emitting double the permissible amount of particulate matter pollutants.
“Of major illnesses, more than 50 per cent respondents reported to have what are known as lifestyle illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, respiratory ailments, blood pressure, followed by Tuberculosis (TB). Respondents from Shivaji Nagar, Mankhurd and Baiganwadi report the highest number of TB cases,” the TISS report had noted.
The application also cites three peer-reviewed studies -- ‘Biomedical Waste management in India: Critical Appraisal’, ‘Dioxins And Furans; And Hospital Waste Incineration’ and ‘Pollution and Tuberculosis: Outdoor sources’ -- which conclusively demonstrate the health risk posed by biomedical waste combustion. Some of the impacts include compromised immune systems, allergic respiratory disease, reduction in fertility, carcinogenesis, reduced thyroid function, thymic atrophy, wasting of body-mass and increased mortality.
“It is therefore submitted that there is a direct co-relation with consistent increase in number of medical cases concerning Tuberculosis, heart ailments and other respiratory diseases amongst persons who reside in close proximity to the incinerator of the Bio-Medical Waste Treatment Plant at Govandi and therefore, in the interest of lakhs of persons residing in M (East) Ward, it is absolutely necessary that the BMWT Plant at Govandi is permanently closed in an expeditious manner,” the group has pleaded, reiterating a long-standing demand.
“We are at our wit’s end. The state environment department had clearly instructed the plant to be shifted to Khalapur by February 2022. This was then pushed to May 2022. Now, however, we are finding out that because the plant has not yet received environmental clearance from the state expert appraisal committee, we have to live amid the pollution for at least one more year. This constant delay does not inspire any faith in the local authorities,” said Shaikh Fayaz Alam, president of the Govandi New Sangam Welfare Society.