Excerpt from DNA, reported by Pandurang Mhaske on March 10, 2010: Read Full Article

Closure of the Deonar dumping ground is turning out to be tougher than the BMC thought as workers involved are being heckled, threatened and even beaten up by anti-social elements at the site. Adding insult to injury is the refusal by the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) to provide jawans to patrol the ground.

The civic body had started a scientific closure of the grounds a couple of months ago. It had appointed Tatva Global Environment Ltd to carry out the work of partial closure and maintenance of the dump on a design-build-own-operate-transfer (DBOOT) model. The project is expected to take two years.

But work is being hindered by antisocial elements and rag-pickers. Recently, civic officials and an engineer were assaulted by goons

aExcerpt from CG+, reported by Vibha Singh on February 13, 2010: Read Full Article

The Brihanmumbai Corporation (BMC) is again facing problems at the Deonar dumping ground with the local slum dwellers and rag pickers creating problems for Tatva Global Environment. The organisation has been appointed by the BMC to revamp the Deonar dumping ground. The contractors and the labourers working on the site are threatened by the locals working at the dumping ground.

The 127-hectare dumping ground, in existence since 1927, has been polluting the nearby creek waters besides contributing heavily to the deteriorating air quality in the neighbourhood. After a long battle between concerned residents and the authorities, the BMC was finally forced to give an affidavit in court stating that it would close the ground scientifically. The standing committee passed the proposal of closing the ground a couple of months ago.

BMC official says, “The menace has grown to such an extent that contractors are finding it difficult to carry out work at the site.” To carry out scientific closure of the dump, a project that is expected to take two years, the BMC needs to build a boundary wall.

Excerpt from DNA by Pandurang Mhaske , January 12, 2010: Read Full Article

In Mumbai, even a garbage dump needs to be safeguarded. The municipal corporation has sought police protection against anti-social elements and ragpickers at the Deonar dumping ground.

The menace has grown to such an extent that contractors are finding it difficult to carry out work at the site. For several decades now, the garbage generated by Mumbai has been disposed of at Deonar. Now that the site is to be closed, however, the Bombay high court has directed the corporation to fill it scientifically.

The BMC has appointed Tatva Global Environment to carry out the work of partial closure and maintenance of the existing dump on a design, build, own, operate,transfer (DBOOT) model.

As reported by Press Trust Of India Mumbai,  December 23, 2009

The mystery behind the missing bullet-proof jacket of slain Maharashtra ATS chief Hemant Karkare took a new turn today with a sweeper of a government hospital claiming that he had disposed it off long ago.

The statement of the sweeper Dinesh Lalji Gatar to a magistrate comes more than a year after Karkare and two other senior police officers were killed by Pakistani terrorists during the 26/11 strikes.

“On the night of November 27, after Karkare’s body was brought to JJ hospital for autopsy, I had mistakenly put the jacket along with bio-medical and non-medical waste in polythene bags which was sent to the Deonar dump grounds for disposal,” the sweeper said in the statement.

The statement evoked a sharp reaction from Kavita Karkare, wife of the slain officer, who said, “This theory had cropped up now because the government is under pressure.

“I have lost all hopes to get fair justice in this case. I do not believe in this. The government is under pressure and hence this statement at a late juncture,” she said.

The sweeper’s statement comes in the wake of a case filed by a social activist before a magistrate seeking probe into the missing jacket.

As reported in IndianExpress on Dec 17, 2009

Even before the work on the partial closure of Deonar dumpyard could begin, yet another public interest litigation (PIL) alleging “irregularity and illegality” in the contract has been filed against the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), additional municipal commissioner (city) and the contractor United Phosphorous Co.

The PIL filed by environmentalist Rishi Aggarwal in the High Court alleges several irregularities in awarding the 25-year contract to United Phosphorous Co. The civic body had decided to partially shut the Deonar dumpyard in order to set up a landfill site with a capacity to treat around 4,000 metric tonnes of garbage.

According to the PIL, while attempting to bargain with the contractor to reduce the original tipping fee— cost per tonne for treating the waste — of Rs 625 per tonne as quoted by the company in 2006 to Rs 445, the BMC has agreed to give the same fee for treating both inert and recycleable garbage. This, according to him, aggregates to over Rs 3,400 crore for 25 years. It is a collossal waste of public money, the PIL alleged. The PIL also pointed out that according to the Central Government’s Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) rule, 2000, a tipping fee can only be levied for garbage which is inert or non-revenue generating. It is not applicable for garbage which can be converted into manure or put to use.

Excerpt from article reported in www.downtoearth.org.in by Rajil Menon  , ( read full story )

Residents of Mumbai’s Chembur suburb blame pollution from the nearby landfill for their lung ailments. A cardiologist, Sandip K Rane, wanted to find out if the Deonar landfill was also causing deaths. All he had was a 2008 study by Mumbai’s KEM hospital that showed 82 per cent non-smokers in Chembur suffer reduced lung function. So, he filed a Right to Information application with the municipality in June this year. It helped.

Data from the municipality’s death records showed 25 per cent deaths in Chembur in 2007-2008 were caused by respiratory illnesses (see table below). In contrast, the figure for Matunga, eight km from Chembur, was only 0.41 per cent. The reasons cited for the deaths in Chembur included lung ailments like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma. “The findings strengthen our campaign. Unscientific dumping of garbage at Deonar has caused extreme pollution and is a leading cause for deaths in Chembur,” said Rane who is a member of the Smoke Affected Residents’ Forum, fighting a court case for closure of the dumpsite.

Incinerator fouling air
Rane now plans to submit the data in the high court that is hearing a contempt petition on the Deonar landfill. The residents’ forum had moved the contempt plea last year when the municipality failed to close the dump (see ‘It stinks’, Down To Earth, December 15, 2008).

Can deaths be linked to landfill?

Rane, however, will need to produce more evidence to strengthen his claim. Amita Athawle who heads the KEMhospital’s Environment Pollution Research Centre said suspended particulate matter is very high in Chembur but genetic susceptibility, health history, smoking and drinking habits too have to be considered before linking deaths in Chembur with Deonar.

“At best, morbidity can be blamed on pollution from the landfill,” she said.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) proposes to set up a water treatment plant at Gorai dumping ground in order to use recycled sewer water to create greenery at Deonar dumping grounds and Gorai

The plant is likely to have a capacity to recycle five mld of water. Similarly, Deonar dumpyard will also be made greener by using recycled sewer water after setting up a plant, which can recycle 20 mld water.

According to sources, United Phosphorus, Kerala based POABS and Germany’s MDSE will be responsible for carrying out the work. Work on the plant at Gorai dumpyard is expected to start soon.

Meanwhile, the BMC also plans to make use of a five ha plot at the dumping ground by making a green open space and a golf club in future.

As reported in TOI  by Anil Singh, on 10 October 2009 (anil.ksingh@timesgroup.com)

The campaign against air pollution from the Deonar dumping ground got a boost last week when the sessions court asked the municipal commissioner and two other top civic officials to answer why criminal proceedings should not be initiated against them for neglecting the problem.

Additional sessions judge S C Chandak issued the notices on October 3 after hearing an application filed by Mario Fortes, a senior citizen from Chheda Nagar at Chembur, who suffers from lung congestion because of the smoke that drifts into his house from the dumping ground.

The Smoke Affected Resident’s Forum (SARF), of which Fortes is a member, says that the smoke comes from fires lit intentionally and unintentionally in the dumping ground. While scrap dealers set fire to the garbage to retrieve metal, some fires start spontaneously when methane gas generated by the rotting waste catches fire in the hot sun. The root cause of the fires, says SARF, is the unscientific treatment of the waste.

“Since burning of garbage is forbidden under the law, it is the responsibility of the municipal commissioner and the civic officials concerned to prevent this,” said Dr Sandip Rane, SARF member and resident of Chembur.

“Our contention is that these acts are punishable with three months’ imprisonment under Section 39 of the Air (prevention & control of pollution) Act of 1981,” said Fortes’ lawyer, Prisilla Samuel. “Since these acts have spread infections and dangerous diseases, we have also said that they are punishable under sections 269 and 270 of the Indian Penal Code,” she added.

The development in which civic officials have been asked to answer why criminal proceedings should not be launched against them is a result of concerted action by the SARF. On March 6 this year, 125 members of SARF filed a police complaint against top civic officials for neglecting the pollution.

That was followed with a 60-day notice to the civic officials under the Air (prevention & control of pollution) Act of 1981 to solve the problem, failing which SARF would prosecute them.

Since the BMC did not reply, the SARF, represented by Fortes, sought prosecution of the officers under the Air Pollution Act and the IPC.

The application was dismissed by magistrate D S Ghumare of the Kurla court but the sessions court has now issued notices to the civic officials on an appeal filed by Fortes. The civic officials have been given time to reply till November 21.

Excerpt from Mumbai Solid Waste Network on 29th Sep 2009: Read Full Article

The purpose of this entry is to give a quick snapshot on the Deonar garbage dump an events leading to the awarding of the Deonar Project. The Deonar Project was finally awarded in Aug 2008 at an exorbitant and unreasonable public cost of Rs. 4500 crores and based on a technology, which is being questioned.

There was hardly any public discussion regarding the use of tax payers money. Below are the inconsistencies in the award of the project which was originally projected to be awarded at around one tenth of the current cost in 2005

This post aims to stir greater public dialogue and expects that people will understand the key aspects of the matter and based on that send emails and letters to their Councilors, Municipal Commissioner and the Press asking for the answers.

As reported in TOI by Sukhada Tatke on 28 July 2009

The Arabian Sea has thrown back at the city what the city has been throwing into it for so long. During the three days last week when exceptionally high tides hit Mumbai’s coastline, leading to heartache and damage for some while proving to be a spectator sport for others, a variety of non-biodegradable waste also made its way from the sea into the city.

Data compiled by the BMC shows that the city got as much as 640 tons (6.4 lakh kg) of waste comprising plastic, polythene bags and thermocol from the sea. This is more than four times the average amount that is dumped on the coast in three days.

“We have contractors to clean up beaches and labourers usually work until 1 pm. This time, however, they had to work overtime. They were asked to collect the garbage immediately and make sure it didn’t stay on the road for too long,’’ additional municipal commissioner R A Rajeev said.

“We found a lot of plastic, thermocol and polythene bags. We had to use as many as 107 heavy vehicles to ferry the waste,’’ he added. The waste was taken to the Deonar dumping ground.

The sea at Juhu and Dadar threw out the maximum amount of garbage (1.18 lakh kg and 3.35 lakh kg respectively). Madh and Manori gave out 37,000 kg and 23,000 kg, while Versova and its extension threw out 29,000 kg and 22,000 kg.

People whose homes were destroyed by the tides also got the largest amount of rubbish. “It was not just the first day, when the tide was 5.05 metres tall, that we suffered. The next two days, which saw 5.01-m and 4.94-m tides, left us completely shattered. We spent two days after that getting rid of the water and cleaning out the garbage,’’ 53-year-old Pratibhatai Parkar of the Geeta Nagar slum at Cuffe Parade said.

Environmentalists are not surprised. “It reflects very poorly on us socially. How will foreigners, lured here by the Incredible India tourism ads, feel when they are hit by a wave filled with offal and coackroaches on Marine Drive?’’ asked Mumbai Environmental Social Network (MESN) member Rishi Aggarwal. “Most of the rubbish makes its way into the sea through the nullahs, and it also reflects our appalling garbage-segregation performance,’’ he added.

Francin Pinto, director of the NGO, Garbage Concern, pointed to the public’s lack of awareness. “The problem is that people are just not sensitised. And even if you take the initiative and try to sensitise them, those living in theslums are usually more responsive to learning than those in high-rises,’’ she said. “Slumdwellers at least understand that the waste they throw into gutters may come back to haunt them,’’ she added.