Plastic replaces sand at JuhuClogged stormwater drains bring 10 times as much
debris to beach in monsoon. Contractor says desilting would have helpedAnumeha
Yadav
Mumbai, July 8: If you’re visiting the beach in the monsoon, you don’t expect a
sunny day. But at Juhu Beach, you don’t get any sand either.
Instead, as far as the eye can see, the 6-km stretch is covered by a patina of
plastic bags and assorted debris. As the waves crash onto the shore, it seems
like the ocean is trying to spit out the garbage—and failing miserably as every
ebbing wave drags it back.
This despite the Rs 30 lakh the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) pays
Anthony Waste Handling Company every year to keep the stretch clean.
‘‘We are doing the best we can,’’ insists Jose Jacob, director of Anthony Waste
Handling. ‘‘Every day, we remove about 60 tonnes of garbage from the beach.’’
So why is there still so much left? ‘‘This happens every monsoon,’’ says Jacob.
‘‘Clogged stormwater drains bring tonnes of plastic bags to the beach from the
Koliwada and Chandan Cinema areas. We are just unable to deal with the load.’’
The average volume of trash dumped on the beach every day is usually about 7
tonnes. In the monsoon, the volume is almost 10 times more. Jacob insists the
situation would never have got so bad if the stormwater drains had been desilted
before the rains.
Meanwhile, the trash is proving a nightmare for locals. ‘‘Every time I take a
dip, I end up with itchy skin,’’ says Bhima Goene (20), a Santacruz resident who
is a regular at the beach.
Sea Princess Hotel H R Executive Richard Rodrigues says the garbage has even
started to affect business. ‘‘Every year, we try and clean the stretch directly
on front of our establishment, but it doesn’t really help,’’ he shrugs.
Now, Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Environment and Waste Management) P R
Sanglikar has promised to take action.
‘‘I was apprised of the situation on Tuesday,’’ he admitted. ‘‘Within the next
10 days, we will put steel bars wherever stormwater drains run under roads or
bridges in the Chandan Cinema and Koliwada areas—to filter the waste.”Meanwhile,
the beach continues to choke on plastic.

Shoppers and shopkeepers beware! Special civic teams, formed to nab offenders of
the ban on use of thin plastic bags will be on the prowl from today.

Though ordinary shoppers will be not be immediately targeted for fines (they
will be targeted after a week), shopkeepers who stock the banned bags and
manufacturers of these bags will be targeted.
Brihanbmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials said that apart from
manufacturers, they would primarily target agents who supply the offending bags.

The BMC’s ban on use of plastic bags that are less than 20 microns thick was
effective from yesterday. ‘‘Yes, the ban was effective from August 15. But since
it was a holiday and shops were mostly closed, we did not really enforce the
ban. But we will start work from today. We have formed special teams,” said
Additional Municipal Commissioner Ajit Kumar Jain.

Deputy Municipal commissioner Chandrashekhar Rokde said that teams from each of
the 25 municipal wards were sent to inspect major market areas in the city.
‘‘Since it was an auspicious day, we did not want to fine anyone. Our teams will
be on the job from today,”said Rokde.

The BMC Act’s sections 390 and 394 dealing with licensing have been modified to
make distribution and manufacturing of these bags an offence. The offence is
non-bailable and manufacturers could be fined anywhere up to Rs one lakh.
Shopkeepers dispensing these bags will be fined Rs 2000. Repeat offenders will
have their licences cancelled and shoppers using these bags too will be fined.

Three BMC departments — licensing, shops and establishment and solid waste
management will be on the job of detecting and fining offenders. The BMC is
offering nuisance detectors from the solid waste management 25 per cent
commission on their pickings to encourage them to keep a sharp eye on offenders.

With three departments enforcing the ban, there will be between 70 and 80 civic
employees in each ward enforcing the ban, said Rokde. This means that there will
be around 2000 employees enforcing the ban all over the city.

According to Rokde, the ban is unlikely to face resistance from the shopkeepers
and the general public. ‘‘Most traders have already changed over to thicker
plastic bags. Some have even stopped plastic bags completely and are offering
incentives to customers who bring their own cloth and reusable bags,” says
Rokde.

Sports coach at St Paul’s school, Dadar Lilita Figueiredo will however need no
incentives to say no to plastic bags. Figueiredo says she will now use her ‘Goa
bags’, which are made of rexene — more often. ‘‘It is good that they have banned
the bags. It will keep the city clean. The area near my house in Dadar is one of
the first places in the city to get flooded. I am happy they are banning it,”
said Figueiredo.

The BMC collects around 6000 tons of garbage from the city everyday. Only six
tons or 0.1 per cent of this weight is plastic. But it has nuisance value much
greater than its weight. The BMC said that plastic bags could be responsible for
between 60 to 70 per cent of the choking incidents of drains in the city.

The nuisance detection squad in the eastern suburbs has collected fines
amounting to around Rs 33.5 lakh in the first five months of the year.

The total amount collected is Rs 33,64,909 in 31,695 cases. In Zone V, the
number of cases registered is 13,324 with the total amount of Rs 20,22,370
collected as fines. Similarly, Zone VI has 18,371 cases with a collection of Rs
13,42,539.

The maximum amount collected from a ward is Rs 8,74,805 from the M-East ward.

The maximum number of cases has been registered in the T ward with a collection
of Rs 3,57,455.

The squads have been instructed to take action against all public nuisance such
as hawkers and eating stalls, unauthorised advertising (like pamphlets), plastic
bags, unauthorised sale of building material, and so on.

According to Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Zone V) C B Rokde, "We have ensured
that our vehicles are fitted with sirens and other boards. In case some vehicles
remain absent, instructions have been given to all assistant municipal
commissioners to fine the contractor in addition to deducting hiring charges per
day."
"If we fight, we may not always win, but if we don't fight, we will surely
lose."