NEERI study trashes garbage disposal system

Mumbai and its satellite towns are struggling to deal with piling heaps of waste.

Mumbai and its satellite towns are struggling to deal with piling heaps of waste.

HT Image

Nineteen of the 20 civic bodies in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) dump untreated waste in open landfill sites, according to preliminary findings of a study done by the Worli-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) show that all.

Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation is the only civic body between Mumbai and Uran that has a solid waste treatment plant.

The MMR region generates about 11,209 tonnes of garbage comprising food leftovers, debris and recyclable waste. About 95 per cent of the waste is dumped in open-air grounds. By 2034, the region will generate 23,469 tonnes of mixed waste.

The perils of untreated garbage are obvious to anyone passing by the Deonar or Mulund dumping grounds in Mumbai. The rotting garbage emits harmful combustible gases. “Current landfill sites are adversely affecting the ecology. Population increase has forced people to live close to dumping grounds leading to severe health hazards,” said Rakesh Kumar, director, NEERI.

Worse, large quantities of untreated wastewater are being released in rivers and lakes, which are the region’s sole drinking water source, the report states.

Only eight out of 20 civic bodies treat wastewater before it flows into rivers and lakes. “The untreated waste water is damaging fisheries, near-shore vegetation and causing ecological problems,” added Kumar.
The municipal bodies that have sewage treatment facilities do not cover the whole region under their jurisdiction. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s sewage system covers only 60 per cent of its jurisdictional area.

The water treatment plants situated in other regions cover even smaller areas — Navi Mumbai (57 per cent), Thane (17 per cent), Kalyan — Dombivli and Bhiwandi-Nizampur (25 per cent) each and Ulhasnagar (25 per cent).

Currently, garbage from 5,800 community bins is manually collected by 35,000 personnel and more than 800 vehicles.

A rich family (not defined by the study) generates 4-5 kg of mixed waste daily; middle class family generates one to three kg and a poor family contributes about 500 grams of waste to city.