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A
step to reduce pollution and ease traffic congestion in Mumbai
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The
first bridge built over the sea in India
Congress president Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the first bridge to be built over the sea in India
on July 1, 2009. in Mumbai. It was built to ease traffic congestion and to cut traveling time between the western suburbs of Bandra with Worli
over the Arabian Sea. It has eight lanes and aims to reduce journey time from 45 to six minutes.
The sea link is being hailed for reducing the travel time from Bandra to Worli to seven minutes from the current 40. This could help save fuel and
reduce pollution. An estimated 50,000 vehicles are set to ply on the eight-lane wonder. The city has more than a million vehicles.
Officials say the bridge is a way to ease Mumbai's traffic problems. But the critics do not believe the bridge will help ease traffic congestion in a city which adds several hundred new vehicles to its roads every
day.
Mumbai's first monorail
One more step to ease traffic congestion and pollution is the
trial run of Mumbai's first monorail on 61st Republic Day of India. The trial run of Rs 2, 460 crore monorail project will be done on a 108 metre track at
Wadala. The proposed route of this monorail is between Jacob Circle and
Chembur will be ready by the year 2011, The Monorail Mumbai will be a substitute of local trains and other road transportation. According to the sources, initially, 14 Monorails with four coaches each with the capacity of 500 passengers .
Mumbai pedals for green cause
'Burn fat, not fuel' was the message that participants were trying to
spread as Mumbai witnessed it's first ever Cyclothon on February 21, 2010. With over 7,000
participants at the Mumbai Cyclothon 2010, the event boasted of six different
categories and each saw a decent flow of entries. "Finally, youngsters are
inspired to take this sport seriously," said one of the senior participants.
The Mumbai Cyclothon, coupled with a 'vehicle free day' on Bandra's Carter Road
gave a boost to the cause of healthy and pollution free environment. With all
the participants having a great time at the event, the man having a ball of a
time was Deepak Thakkar, a bicycle dealer who had set up his base at the Bandra
Reclamation Ground. An event like this gives the right message to the public as well as the
government about saving fuel as well as our environment. |
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Mumbai
as top polluted city
According to WHO, Mumbai is next to Kolkata and Delhi as one of the top ten most polluted cities in the world
In India, the urban agglomerations are restricted to a selected few cities, which
have attracted migration. Mumbai being the trade and commercial capital of India,
has been the destination for all types of population groups such as literates,
illiterates; skilled and unskilled; and persons from all walks of life. The
population of Mumbai grew by 38 per cent during 1971-81 and, 20 per cent during
1981-91 to reach 10 million. Currently, the Mumbai’s population is standing at
18 million making it one of the most populous metropolises in the world. With
this increase in population there has been an increase in number of vehicles and
industrial activities aggravating of air pollution levels. With this
growing peril of air pollution there is a serious threat to the health of its citizens
(World Bank). |
Mumbai is located on India’s west coast and
consists of a peninsula originally composed of seven islets. Drainage and reclamation have
caused the islets to join and form the present – day Bombay (Mumbai) Island, with the
Arabian Sea to the west, and Bombay harbour and the inlet of Thane creek to the
east. Aside from being India’s financial and commercial centre, Mumbai is also the most industrialized Indian city.
Mumbai is now the second largest coastal city in the world and India's premier port.
The new Mumbai, located close to the largest chemical industry zone in Asia, is exposed to high levels of toxic and carcinogenic chemicals released by these industries.
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Hazardous. Industries in the city
There are approximately 40,000 small and big industries in the city, of which 32 have been classified as hazardous. Industries
in the air-polluting category include textile mills, chemical, pharmaceutical,
engineering and foundry units. Process emissions and those from fuel consumption,
constitute the main sources of air pollution. Major air pollution sources include
a giant fertilizer/chemical complex; two oil refineries and a thermal power
plant, all based in CHEMBUR, a suburb on the eastern coast of Bombay (World Bank).
The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGB) monitors the air
quality within the city limits; MCGB has measured ambient air quality
regularly at 22 monitoring stations in Mumbai for over 15 years. These monitoring stations
measured the air pollutant levels according to who prescribed guidelines and methods.
Air Quality Monitoring
These mobile monitoring vans operated by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's Air Quality Monitoring and Research (AQMR) laboratory are stationed at traffic junctions at Worli, Andheri and Wadala.
In January 2008, Andheri touched 542 microgrammes per cubic metre
(µg/m3). In Feb 2007 and Feb 2006, the figures for the same monthly
average were 534 µg/m3 and 489 µg/m3 respectively.
In February 2008, Wadala's SPM levels were 425 µg/m3. That is an
alarming rise from 178 µg/m3 in February 2007 and 312 µg/m3 in Feb ruary 2006.
In March 2008, Wadala recorded 303 µg/m3 levels of SPM, the
corresponding figures for the month of March 2007 and March 2006 in the
same area were 258 µg/m3 and 300 µg/m3.
"Rise in SPM over the years has increased asthma prevalence in the city as it's an important triggering factor," says Dr Pramod Niphadkar, honorary secretary of the Asthma and Bronchitis Association of India.
"People don't give much attention to the pollution, but... though there
are very few mortalities due to air pollution, morbidity is of great concern," he added.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), SPM is among the most serious air pollutants, resulting in an additional 4.6 lakh deaths every year, worldwide. Reiterating WHO's data, a senior scientific officer at AQMR admits: "SPM is a major pollutant in Mumbai's air, followed by
nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide."
Scientists at AQMR also point out a new entrant in the family of particulate matter - sand used to set loose interlocking tiles across the city's pavements. "Every time a car passes, the dry sand that's left over blows along for miles," the AQMR officer says. In Mumbai, pollution from road and building construction is second only to vehicular pollution.
Overall, Mumbai's highest SPM levels are at Maravali, near Chembur,
because of the industrial estates in that area. In Deonar, a fixed monitor
ing station of the AQMR measured the highest levels of SPM this February - an alarming 1,133 µg/m3, owing to the proximity of the city's
biggest dumping ground. Today, SPM in ambient air in Mumbai is anywhere between 545 µg/m3 to 292 µg/m3, not complying with the central pollution control board. Permissible levels, according to the AQMR, are 140 µg/m3 in residential areas and 360 µg/m3 in industrial areas.
Air pollution causes asthma
"General asthma levels in the city are anywhere between three to five per cent whereas in polluted areas, that increases to 10 per cent," says Dr Amita Athavale, head of
(EPRC) at KEM Hospital. She says while SPM doesn't directly cause asthma it causes increased incidence of asthmatic attacks among those already suffering from the disease and triggers
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among those prone to respiratory ailments. There
are cases of pulmonary fibrosis where lungs lose elasticity permanently, reducing the capacity to take in air. "In
pulmonary fibrosis, pollution works as one of the significant triggers. In the Seventies, we saw pulmonary fibrosis cases once every
year, now we are seeing one fresh case every week," says Dr Niphadkar. |
Mumbai, the financial capital of the country, is home to the largest slum in Asia and almost half of the
city's inhabitants are slum-dwellers.
Slumdog
Millionaire Oscars
Awards to India on children films was the story
of Mumbai's slum-dwellers.
The location of the Mumbai airport too makes it vulnerable to smog. It is not only situated well within the precincts of the city, but is also flanked by the industrial area near Kurla.
Mumbai imports and transports a lot of oil products. The refineries and depots have been identified as areas that cause substantial oil pollution.
Domestic wastes are discharged mostly in untreated condition due to the lack of treatment facilities. There are only available facilities for 390
million litres per day (MLD) as against the 1,200 MLD of domestic sewage that is generated.
Exceptionally high concentrations of lead, cadmium, and mercury have been observed in Thane creeks on the Mumbai Coast. |
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City's
waste dumps sites
Mumbai authorities have purchased 42,000 litres of perfume to spray on the
city’s enormous waste dumps at Deonar and Mulund landfill sites after people
living near the landfill sites complained of the stench. The Deonar landfill site, one of India’s largest, was first used by the British
in 1927. Today, the festering pile covers more than 120 hectares and is eight story's high.
Everything gets dumped there; old food, rotten fish, rotten vegetables, plastic
bags, glass and metal items. Around 500,000 people live near the two dumps, which were once beyond the city
limits but have been caught up in the sprawl of one of the world’s fastest
growing urban areas. The council has spent 4.8 million rupees on enough scent to last for
10 months, where more than half the population live in slums.
Most densely populated urban area in the
world
Mumbai’s population of 18 million has more than doubled in the past 30 years,
making it the most densely populated urban area in the world. In March, Mumbai was ranked seventh in a list of the world’s 25 dirtiest cities
published by Forbes magazine, a worse rating than even Baghdad. India’s capital, New Delhi, was listed 24th.
Mumbai’s council now has plans to close part of the dumps and use the methane
the rest generates to help solve the city’s power crisis. |
Mumbai's enormous waste dumps at Deonar and Mulund landfill sites.
In Mumbai the population produces close to 8,500
metric tonnes of rubbish a day, most of which makes its way to the two sites. |
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The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board
(MPCB) is setting up 46 air quality monitoring stations in the state as part of its campaign against air and water pollution. The
programme, covering 27 urban centres, is called Pollution Assessment Monitoring and Surveillance
(PAMS) and is aimed at helping MPCB take stringent steps while dealing with cases of water and air pollution, an MPCB official said.
MPCB operates 62 such stations. The proposed air quality monitoring centres would come up at
Kalyan- Dombivali and Bhiwandi in Thane district, Mahad and Roha in Konkan region, Latur in Marathwada and
at Solapur, Sangli-Miraj and Ahmednagar.
Mumbai still has a very high incidence of chronic respiratory problems, arising from extreme air pollution.
The causes of pollution are mainly industries in the eastern suburbs and New Bombay, garbage burning by the BMC, and
insufficient control over emission levels from vehicles.
Firecrackers and noise pollution during Diwali
A 50-100% increase in pollution levels during Diwali days due to bursting of
firecrackers, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB)
monitored the ambient air quality at five places in the city and noise quality at 20 spots.
MPCB has banned manufacturing of crackers that make a noise of more than 125 decibels at four metre distance from the point of bursting.
The hazards of pollution caused by crackers include hearing loss, increase in blood pressure, heart attack and sleeping disturbance. Sudden exposure to loud noise could also cause temporary deafness or permanent relative deafness.
Lung diseases register a sharp rise during Diwali due to the smoke emanating from firecrackers.
Disposal of e-waste
Mumbai generates about 23,000 tonnes of e-waste every year, but disposal has been very disorganised so far,” said Sanjay
Khandare, member secretary, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board. Three years ago Mumbai generated only 11,000 tonnes of e-waste. It now generates the most E-waste in the country.
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has come up with in its latest environmental status report
(September , 2008) indicates that the end of the rains will bring even worse times for people suffering from diseases of the respiratory tract.
Panel chalks out plans to curb pollution
The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has launched a series of
short- term plans as well as long-term surveys to curb contamination in
critically polluted regions of Maharashtra, including Dombivali and Navi Mumbai on Februray 1, 2010.
This follows a study by the Central government which calculated a Comprehensive
Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) for 88 key industrial clusters in India.
The study, conducted by the Central Pollution Control Board and the IIT, Delhi,
showed that industrial hubs like Chandrapur, Dombavili, Navi Mumbai and Tarapur
in Maharashtra recorded alarming levels of pollutants in the air, water and
land, exceeding a total CEPI level of 70. The Centre has named these regions as ‘critically polluted industrial
clusters/areas’ and has recommended temporary restrictions on consideration of
developmental projects in these regions. |
Increasing emission levels from vehicles in Mumbai.
A 50-100% increase in pollution levels during Diwali days due to bursting of
firecrackers
Terrorist attack in Mumbai |
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