Disgruntled residents’ send garbage up in flames, into sea

MUMBAI, MARCH 27: Air pollution just got worse over the weekend and the coastline saw more than its share of waste, with residents burning...

MUMBAI, MARCH 27: Air pollution just got worse over the weekend and the coastline saw more than its share of waste, with residents burning the mountains of garbage in their locality or just dumping their trash into the sea. With BMC workers showing no signs of calling off their agitation and the garbage in the city getting unmanageable, residents in different parts of the city went on a weekend cleaning spree, lighting bonfires of garbage and indiscriminately throwing waste into the sea.

Environmentalists have raised an alarm as disgusted citizens take it upon themselves to dispose the garbage they generate. Concerned about all the dioxins and chlorine fumes circulating in the city air, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are crying foul, while residents say they have no option. BMC officials, in the meanwhile are busy “managing the basic functioning of the organisation”.

Residents of Dadar, Mahim, Powai finally set a light to the heap of garbage collecting outside their colonies over the weekend. “The stench is unbearable and we didn’t know what to do,” says a resident of Shivaji Park. “Either way we are suffering. We realise that we added to the already polluted atmosphere over the city but if we hadn’t burnt the dump, we couldn’t have opened the windows of our house.”

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Zinnia Khajotia of CLEAN Air says: “Burning is a 100 per cent no-no. People don’t realise that the chlorines and dioxins released by the burning eventually finds its way into the food chain. While the air is suffering thanks to the strike, it has come to our notice that residents in certain areas have also started trashing their waste in the sea. if this strike continues, it will be a real test for the environment.”

While residents express helplessness, a Greenpeace report on Dioxin Elimination — A Global Imperative sounds the warning bell about indiscriminately burning garbage in the open. Citing the example of the United States, the report clearly states that more than 70 per cent of dioxins released in the air are due to open burning of garbage. The report goes on to state that most developing countries do the same and subsequently suffer the consequneces.

Environmentalists say that with most households neatly knotting their garbage in polythene bags before dumping it in the municipal bin, burning it means burning the ploythene also. Further, with cans, tetrapacks and everything else finding its way into the same bin, the fumes emanating from the junk is highly toxic in nature.

“Polythene bags release large amounts of chlorine, which is not only very toxic but also finds its way into the food chain,” explains Dipika D’Souza of non-governmental organisation Toxic Links. “Tetrapacks have metal linings and when burnt they release dioxins, which are again very harmful.”

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While the BMC’s air monitoring unit has not yet registered an alarming increase in levels of toxic gases in the air, environmentalists are apprehensive that if the strike is not called off and the burning continues, the effects will also be felt.