City Pulse

Mumbai, Maharashtra: Three things happened in May, 2017. One, residents of a Mumbai suburb Borivali took up brooms and cleared garbage littering the mouth of the Poisar. Two, they wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi warning him that his Swachh Bharat Campaign was under threat from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s apathy.  Three, Mumbai fell from 10th to 29th in the Centre’s clean city ranking.

Poisar is a river in Mumbai contaminated with industrial effluents and sewage. Borivali residents didn’t clean up the river, only some garbage at its mouth. There are many such natural resources which the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan doesn’t touch.

The Swachh Sarvekshan Clean City ranking is a Union Ministry of Urban Development initiative. The letter to the Prime Minister was written just days before the 2017 rankings were released and it was revealed that Mumbai’s ranking had fallen from No.10 to No.29! 

For environment activists like Ashwin Aghor it was then time to call out the government’s priorities. He said to keep streets clean was commendable. But what about cleaning up natural resources like the Poisar?

The government’s schemes overlook rivers and other natural resources, he said. The government has to focus on natural resources for the long term good of all.   

The rankings of Mumbai’s satellite cities Thane and Mira-Bhayander didn’t lift spirits either. Thane failed to break into the top 100, and Mira-Bhayandar was placed at 130.

The only consolation was Navi Mumbai. Named cleanest city in Maharashtra, and in the West Zone, it ranked No.8, scoring 1705 marks.

Dr Amiya Kumar Sahu, vice chairman of Asia Pacific Waste and Recycling Allies, said Navi Mumbai fared better than Mumbai on all parameters including population and slums, and because it’s a planned city, a smart city. 

The ministry’s clean city report gave high marks to Navi Mumbai’s door-to-door solid waste collection system, marked by segregation of dry and wet waste.

Praising the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC), the report seized on its capacity building for garbage. It highlighted Navi Mumbai as an open defecation free city. It spoke highly of its state-of-art toilets, especially those for women.

Navi Mumbai’s sewage treatment plants also played an important role in boosting its ranking.

Citizens answered six questions put to them in the survey. They gave their opinions on sanitation and cleanliness. The performance of each city was evaluated on parameters such as sweeping, transportation, disposal of garbage and open defecation free areas.   

Navi Mumbai, a satellite town of Mumbai with a population of around 12 lakh, got 456 points for citizen engagement, meaning that its citizens played a pivotal role in keeping it clean.

Mumbai scored one mark more than last year's tally of 1534. But with more cities participating in the survey – rising from 73 to 434 – Mumbai failed to make it to the top 10 in 2017.

In the Municipal Solid Waste category that includes sweeping, segregation, collection and transportation of waste, Mumbai fared better than other cities, scoring 166 out of 200 against the national average of just 47.

The massive January fire in Deonar’s solid waste dump prompted Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to initiate a series of safeguards in managing the city’s landfills better, adding 32 dry segregation sites and setting up processing plants.

Activists, however, disputed the claims.

“The biggest concern about Mumbai’s cleanliness is garbage disposal,” said Aghor. “Kanjurmagar and Deonar dumping grounds are not equipped to handle the amount of waste generated in Mumbai.”

A lack of civic sense in Mumbaikars to segregate waste added to Mumbai’s Swachh Bharat problems, said Aghor.

Lack of participation by citizens was also one of the parameters where Mumbai disappointed. "Despite a population of 1.25 crore only 5000 people gave their feedback,” Kiran Dighavkar, in charge of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan of Birhanmumbai Municipal Corporation said.

She also lamented the fact that Mumbai was pitted against unequal participants. “It’s difficult for mega cities like Mumbai to compete with smaller towns of three lakh population. For example, we installed 18,000 new toilets but we still didn't do well in the open defecation free category," she said.

Sahu, while noting that cleaning up Mumbai’s streets was an ongoing project, said the only solution to achieve the objective was to impose a hefty penalty on all those who litter streets.

“All stakeholders, from NGOs to citizens to local bodies, must come together to clean up Mumbai’s streets. It will take three to four decades, but mere photo-ops and posters with celebrities on them won’t help. Words need to translate into action,” said Sahu.

He said if the Municipal Commissioner failed to implement Swachh Bharat schemes, action should be taken against the Municipal Commissioner.