Excerpt from Mumbai Mirror, compiled by Ajit Ranade on July 10, 2010: Read Full Article

There is something fishy about BMC’s approach of rewarding waste carters with generous ‘tipping fee’.

Mumbai produces six thousand tonnes of solid waste every day. This is the smelly stuff. There’s also debris from the frenetic construction which generates another two thousand tonnes.

The garbage is carted to four major dumping sites, at Gorai (near Borivali), Mulund, Kanjurmarg and Deonar. In those sites it is either buried or burnt or both. Some years ago, strange fumes started coming out of one of the landfill sites near Gorai, in Malad, spreading panic among the office towers which had sprung up on that site. In Deonar, garbage was being burnt all these years, causing smoke in surrounding areas of Chembur, Ghatkopar and Govandi.

The smoke led to many respiratory ailments for most residents living in houses surrounding Deonar dumping grounds, causing residents to form the Smoke Affected Residents’ Forum (SARF) in 1996. This forum filed a public interest litigation (PIL) against the BMC in the high court asking for relief. Mumbai’s garbage has long since exceeded the city’s capacity to burn and bury it. Now the emphasis is on waste treatment.

By 2000, there was a national policy on urban waste management for all India which reiterated the need to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Is it possible to think of zero garbage localities? Rather than carting away waste, it is best to reduce it at the origin itself. By separating wet and dry garbage, by composting all biodegradable waste, it is possible to reduce waste to a minimum.

Excerpt from DNA by Hetal Vyas & Naveeta Singh on April 8, 2010: Read Full Article

The next time you fly in or out of Mumbai, your safety’s not only in the hands of the pilot but also the bird that may obstruct your plane’s path. A Right to Information (RTI) query has revealed that the Deonar dumping ground, which is about 8km from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), is one of the main reasons for bird hits at the airport. The slaughter houses in the vicinity of the airport have always known to be the cause of bird hits, which pose a grave threat to lives of passengers.

Taking note of the increasing number of bird hits at CSIA — 13 in 2009 and 3 so far this year — Datta Mane, an advocate, has moved the Bombay high court seeking directives for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to revoke all slaughter house licences. In the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Mane, he also wants the Deonar dumping ground to be shifted from its current location.

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.