Mumbai rain check: BMC ready with trash booms to keep floating garbage away

The civic body also claimed they have completed the required desilting of nullahs and rivers before the onset of monsoon.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Saturday said they have put up trash booms – filtered partitions made of acid-resistant fibre – in nine nullahs to ensure floating garbage doesn’t choke the drains causing the city to flood. The booms will also curb the direct release of effluents into the sea.

Trash boom is a filtered partition put in a flowing river or nullah (HT Photo)

The civic body also claimed they have completed the required desilting of nullahs and rivers before the onset of monsoon.

According to the BMC, the nine locations include Dahisar river, Poisar, Irla pumping station, Lovegrove pumping station, SNDT nullah, Main Avenue nullah, Oshiwara River, P&T nullah and Mogra
nullah.

The pile of floating garbage collected using booms is cleared through desilting.

VH Khandkar, chief engineer, storm water drainage department, said, “We don’t have specific data on how much garbage is stopped by these trash booms.”

Every year, the civic body’s pre-monsoon work involves two-thirds of the overall cleaning of the city’s stormwater drains.

It has to desilt 254.67km of major nullahs, 443.84km of minor nullahs and 21.35km of Mithi river.

“We have completed 100% desilting work of rivers and major nullahs in the city. We desilt around 70% of the sewage before the monsoon, 15% during the monsoon and 15% after the monsoon. As of June 1, we have completed 100% of the required 70%,” said Khandkar.