Mumbai : The slums of Mumbai get most affected during the rains — there’s flooding, monsoon-related diseases due to water stagnation, open defecation, unclean toilets and open drainage systems. Some slums are situated around nullahs and have poor waste disposal systems, with residents pouring garbage into the nullahs and clogging them. This further compounds incidences of monsoon-related illnesses.
To reduce this occurrence of rain-related diseases, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has come up with a systematic waste disposal mechanism, especially in Mumbai’s slum areas. With coordinated efforts among all its departments, the civic body will clean up drains, roads and public toilets around the city. It has planned to cover up areas prone to water stagnation.
Besides, the civic body will adopt other healthcare measures, such as collecting water samples from municipal corporation taps to test these for impurities, fogging areas around slums, and taking up anti-larval measures.
Pallavi Darade, the additional municipal commissioner, said that the civic body will take immediate measures and complete all work in a fortnight.
Meanwhile, as the BMC does not have jurisdiction in railway premises, it cannot clean out the garbage accumulated on either side of the tracks and along the boundary walls. It has recognised 117 spots where the railway authorities can dump garbage collected by them, for BMC to collect.
