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THE STORY OF MUMBAI'S PLASTIC WASTE FLOWING INTO SEA IS NOT SOMETHING SWEET.
Every day Mumbai dumps around 80 - 110 metric tons (MT) into water channels and drains , as according to the application submitted by the environment group Vanashakti to the National Green Tribunal on December , 2018. the Application also included the Maharashtra's Government inablity and failure to install net water drains across the city for the purpose of collection of waste before they flow into seas or rivers. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board ( MPCB) said, rivers and the sea along Mumbai’s 437.71sqkm coastal stretch is under threat with plastic waste as a major source among municipal solid waste. The Applicants said that the qunatum of plastic entring the drains is much more than the last year reported, " The Negligent Attitude of the People , especially those who are living near the drains and creeks has resulted in massive amounts of plastic waste, majority of which is single use plastic, being dumped into the natural water courses,” said Stalin D, director, Vanashakti. The cost of this carelessness strike throughout the deluge on Gregorian calendar month twenty six, 2005, when Mumbai was pounded with 944mm rain in one day that claimed more than 1,000 lives.
Experts aforesaid the 2005 floods were the maximum amount a results of clogged open surface drains with solid waste as well as plastic, storm water drains and its channels as it was due to vital changes in land use across the town and prohibited construction and encroachments on natural drains and therefore the Mithi stream. Experts said flood peaks in urban areas are about two-eight times and flood volume is about six times when compared with the rural floods. “No city is safe from flood disasters,” said Kapil Gupta, professor, water resources engineering, department of civil engineering, Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay. “City authorities ought to take measures to make sure that once significant rain happens, adequate drainage systems are in place and these are unclogged so that flooding does not occur within the vulnerable areas.” There square measure twenty nine outfalls in western suburbs debilitating directly into ocean whereas fourteen drain into Mithi watercourse that ultimately joins Mahim creek. In jap suburbs, fourteen outfalls discharge in Thane creek whereas six discharge in Mahul creek and eight into Mahim creek. VH Khandkar, former chief engineer, storm water drains (SWD) department of the Brihnamumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had installed trash booms (like nets with thin meshes installed at the mouth of creeks to stop solid waste) across.
