Despite several cleanliness drives in the past few months, the city has once again failed to secure a higher rank in the National "Swachh Survekshan 2023". The BMC has set target to attain zero-garbage in Mumbai by 2030. However, it has been observed that the BMC has failed to achieve 100% segregation of dry and wet waste with garbage processing units in several societies shut down after the pandemic. Moreover, several drives have miserably failed to clean the slums in the city. The activists and former corporators blame the apathy of civic officials and lack of proper planning that has pulled down the city in the competition.
City's garbage situation
They fared poorly in source segregation of garbage with 65%, while it got only 49% in waste generation v/s processing. The city scored the poorest in remediation of dumpsites with 9%. In the first cleanliness survey conducted by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in 2014, Mumbai was ranked as low as 147. Two years later, it jumped up to the 10th rank in 2016. The city was also awarded as the ‘Best performer’ among mega cities.
In the same year, the Solid Waste Management Rules were formed that needed the BMC to achieve waste management at the source, reducing dependability on dumping grounds. However, even after eight years, the city is yet to achieve 100% garbage segregation at source, said civic sources.
The BMC's efforts to make all the housing societies and commercial establishments larger than 20,000 square metres or those producing more than 100 kilos of wet waste (bulk generators) to start segregating and composting waste in their premises failed badly post-covid. Currently, less than 50% of bulk generators are complying with the rule, said civic sources. On the other hand, the waste segregated by the residents gets mixed in the compactor brought to collect the dry and wet waste in different bags. Thus, defeating the purpose of the exercise, complains former corporators.
Plans to introduce a new cleaning mechanism in slums to be implemented soon
"The Swacch Abhiyan implemented to maintain cleanliness in slums has failed. We have plans to introduce a new mechanism for cleaning in slums which will be implemented by next month. The city has a dense population with 60% in the slum area. Besides, the citizens should also contribute to keeping the city clean. We will appoint an agency in 24 administrative wards that will go door to door to create awareness of segregation. We will also send our team of officers to study the Indore pattern.
The bulk generators failing to segregate and process will have to face a penalty for which we are modifying the by laws in the next 3 to 4 months. We are taking several efforts to keep the city clean, which will bear fruit soon," said a senior civic official. Sanjog Kabre, deputy municipal commissioner (Solid waste management) said, "We will check where we have scored less and will make efforts to secure higher ranks next time."
City produces daily 6,300 to 6,500 metric tonnes of waste
Number of bulk generators: 2,825
Number of societies processing waste: 1,424
Number of societies not processing waste: 1,401
Quantum of wet waste processed: 343.8 metric tonnes per day
BMC annually spends Rs.883 crores on transporting waste to the landfills.
The citizens' complaints related to solid waste management were 5519 in 2013 which went up to 12,351 in 2022.
