Human sewage threatens to ravage Mumbai's ecosystem

Human sewage which is largely made up of excrement wastewater and industrial effluents will continue to impact the cityrsquos ecosystem and will pose a significant public health threat in the futureMuch like the cityrsquos inland nullahs rivers and lakes Mumbairsquos coastal waters will become contaminated with pathogenic microbes resulting in illnesses from waterborne and foodborne pathogens found in the tissues of fish eventually consumed by humansMahim creek off L J Road Mahim Sewage from the Bandra treatment facility passes through this pipe before ending up in the Arabian SeaThis scenario will play out in the future because the cityrsquos western coastline is likely to bear the brunt of untreated sewage an estimated 2000 million litres per day MLD of untreated sewage is expected to make its way into the sea over the next 10 years The ecological threat has grown multifold over the past decade due to poor planning and shoddy execution of crucial projects meant to augment the existing sewage treatment facilities at Colaba Worli Bandra Versova Malad Bhandup and GhatkoparTurf warOver the past decade the land reserved for expansion of treatment plants was fought over by state government entities BMC and the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation MSRDC with parcels of this land allegedly usurped by a private contractor appointed by the development corporation for its infrastructure worksThis fact was highlighted in a 2011 report of former municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar submitted to the state government where he revealed that the ldquoapparent intention of the contractor for the Sea Link extension was to useoccupy land meant for a treatment plant for his benefitrdquoIn a 2011 report former municipal commissioner Subodh Kumar said that the intention of the contractor for the Sea Link extension was to useoccupy land meant for a treatment plant for his own benefit PicPradeep DhivarMeanwhile the approval given to the BMC by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board MPCB allowing the dumping of semitreated effluents into the sea expired in 2014 An MPCB notice last year pulled up the corporation for not meeting the set targets of modernising the cityrsquos treatment plants The MPCB had given its consent to the BMC to discharge sewage into the sea after carrying out preliminary treatment and meeting standards set for effluents known as SW2Data obtained under RTI by midday in July highlights the threat that looms over marine life on the west coast of Mumbai along the Arabian Sea A close look at project files shows that the BMC has bungled the multicrore Mumbai Sewage Disposal Project MSDPII meant to augment seven treatment plants along the west coastBMC is unlikely to begin the project by 2025 leave alone complete it by then mdash because MSRDC canrsquot now hand over the land for the next six years and the civic body has conceded that the only option left is reclamation This 10 years after it planned the R13500crore projectClearly the BMC has lost a chance to improve its treatment facilities from the existing preliminary level to either the primary secondary or even tertiary levels The conventional sequence of a sewage treatment plant typically goes from primary to secondary to tertiary levelsTo cite an example primary treatment can reduce biochemical oxygen demand BOD by 20 per cent BOD is the amount of oxygen microorganisms must consume to break down the organic material present in wastewater This in turn increases dissolved oxygen DO which is good for aquatic organisms DO also controls food webs since living organisms depend on each other for their food needs The performance of treatment plants is measured in terms of BOD and SS suspended solid removals Most of Mumbairsquos plants do not even touch the 2030 ratio needed for BODSS treatment a mark which qualifies as primary treatmentThe putrid problem has been growing along Mumbairsquos coast with regular dumping of partiallytreated sewage into the cityrsquos seawater The BMC maintains that its treatment samples are well within the standard limit but that is not trueSome plants may fulfil the standards of dissolved oxygen DO and BOD as per SW2 standards This is a set of standards and the mark at which sewage can be released into the sea the rules also prohibit certain activities provided under coastal regulation zone CRZ notification 2011 set by the MPCBThe current level of coliform per 100 ml of sewage is 5000 to 10000 CFU coliform forming unit Coliform are bacteria found in the faeces of man and other warmblooded animals The ideal CFU level should be 100 CFU per 100 ml but this is not happening at all seven treatment plants along the cityrsquos west coast Colaba Worli Bandra Versova Malad Bhandup and GhatkoparWaste to the seaThe BMC had been given consent to discharge semitreated waste into the sea on the condition that it would simultaneously take steps to upgrade its existing infrastructure including its treatment plants drain and sewer lines and phase out old levels of discharging waste by modernising existing plants Meanwhile the civic body has not taken any significant steps to improve the collection conveyance treatment and disposal of wastewater generated in Mumbai In a letter written in April 2014 then environment secretary of the state environment department R A Rajeev had clearly warned the BMC that the time for phasing out of existing practices had expiredError in judgementThe shoddy planning of implementing MSDP is visible from the fact that the civic body chose a wrong technology that proposes production of a large quantity of sludge after treatment As a result the BMC has spent 10 years just to scout for land to dump sludge proposed to be produced from the modernisation of the seven treatment plants At Colaba alone it was estimated that the project flow would increase to 30 MLD by 2016 but the quantity of wet digested sludge expected to be generated was around 20 tonnes daily or three truckloads per day The quantity of sludge for the rest of the six plants which are much bigger in size would even be moreldquoFor 10 years all we have done is scout for land to build a centralised sludge dumping and treating facility to effectively handle silt generation from seven new waste water treatment plantsrdquo said a BMC officialUnanswered questionsRA Rajeev former additional municipal commissioner at the BMC told midday that the choice of technology was made in the late lsquo90s and even then a lot of questions had been raisedldquoThe alternative technology used in smaller civic corporations elsewhere such as in Thane and Navi Mumbai does not involve production of sludge These plants are doing really well But why BMC chose a sludgebased technology knowing it has no land to dump even the cityrsquos solid waste mdash forget extra sludge mdash from the treatment plants raises a lot of question marksrdquo he saidOver the years several complaints were raised on BMCrsquos choice of technology but they fell on deaf ears One such opponent of BMCrsquos choice was Geeta Kanojia corporator and former chairman of the ward committee for Colaba In her letter to BMC five years ago she pointed to the extreme damage caused to the marine life in her constituency due to untreated sewage being dumped into the sea She had urged the BMC to choose a better technology like the one used in Navi MumbaildquoWe have been facing a lot of problems and receiving complaints from fishermen and residents on the existing quality of sewage being dumped in the sea that has severely affected marine life affecting fishermenrsquos livelihoodrdquo she wrote in her letter to the municipal commissioner in 2008ldquoNavi Mumbai has been able to achieve better treatment with smaller plants and is now selling the treated water The BMC must visit these plants and take a callrdquo she had said in the letterThe BMC had while drawing up the first plans for MSDP opted for the SBR sequencing batch reactor technology over the conventional Activated Sludge ASbased treatment SBR produces far greater quantity of sludge compared to the AS treatment The Thane Municipal Corporation TMC for example is using the AS treatment with great success for a 120MLD sewage treatment plant at Kopri ldquoThe operation and maintenance cost of this STP is minimum and there is little sludge generation afterwards Alas our COD and BOD values are much less than prescribed by MPCB at the same timerdquo said Aseem Gupta former TMC commissionerNo land for sludgeFor the past ten years the BMC has been sparring with other agencies over a parcel of land at Bandra to set up a sludge treatment facility for the Worli Bandra and Dharavi plants However the corporation has informed the government that the land has been diverted for the benefit of a private developer appointed by the MSRDC All this is happening while the MSDPII has been already delayed by a decade and MPCBrsquos permission to BMC to dump semitreated waste into the sea expired last year in 2014The BMC had acquired 20 hectares ha of land along and under the BandraWorli Sea link behind hotel Taj Landrsquos End at a cost of R20 crore in 1981 but soon part 48 ha of the land was temporarily handed over to MSRDC for construction of the BandraWorli Sea Link and about 55 ha was given to the Mumbai Maritime Board MMB for its water transport project for construction and modernisation of its existing jetty along the BandraWorli Sea LinkAt some point it was decided the two agencies MSRDC and MMB would pay R81 crore in cost and rent to the BMC In 2003 the government gave directives that the amount would be adjusted from what BMC owed to the irrigation department for lifting of water from the Bhatsa dam BMC was to pay the PWD department for water the amount in turn would be paid to the MSRDC However neither has any payment been made nor has any land made available even as BMC continues to pay R124 lakh every year in NA tax nonagriculture tax a set of mandatory taxes levied by the state government on every piece of land which is to be developed in a nonagricultural manner on the leased land senior officials saidThe BMC officials in the past ten years have sent 27 notices to the MSRDC but to no avail A former BMC commissioner even alleged in his letter to the government that the land was diverted by the MSRDC for the benefit of a private developer ldquoMSRDC had committed handing back this land by December 2009 But this land was never diverted by MSRDC to the bidders for the Sea Link Nevertheless the land was never vacated and it seems the apparent intention of the contractor for the Sea Link extension was to useoccupy land for his benefitrdquo then civic commissioner Subodh Kumar wrote in a scathing letter to his counterpart in MSRDC on November 2 2011This single piece of land is the reason for delay in construction of the Bandra Worli Sea Link WorliHaji Ali and Nariman Point link MSDPII Coastal Road construction of a Toll Control Plaza and a jetty The agencies involved mdash BMC MSRDC and MMB mdash have only traded charges of nepotism and passing on illegal benefits for private use without doing much to solve the problem at handAnother decade to goAssistant Municipal Commissioner Rajiv Jalota in his letter on August 13 2014 report no DMCE1590 told the government and MPCB that expansion work at Bandra cannot start for ldquoat least next six to eight years and untreated sewage will have to be discharged in the sea for next ten years at leastrdquo ldquoA major policy call needs to be taken on thisrdquo the AMC had warned the government There are two sides to this dispute while the BMC blames the then chief minister in 2005 for messing up the issues who on March 10 2005 gave orders directing BMC to not charge costs from the other agencies in exchange of land This was done in the absence of any BMC officials ldquoThis was in violation of Section 92 of the MMC Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act that mandates permission of standing committee to lease any landrdquo an internal BMC report had notedThe governmentrsquos reasoning was that the sea link was a part of the cityrsquos development plan DP and therefore BMC must give land free of cost But a report of then chief engineer in 2005 clearly stated that the ldquoproposed sea link is not part of DP and BMC must not hand it over free as MSRDC will collect toll from itrdquo Following this the then commissioner Johny Joseph refused to hand over the plot for free going against the chief ministerrsquos decisionAllan Grant project manager for BMC pointed out that it was not advisable to have a toll tower near the treatment plant from the safety point of view Such close proximity will also lead to respiratory and health problems ldquoHydrogen sulphide generated by the wastewater will be released into the atmosphere at the treatment units This gas if the building is closer could damage electronic equipmentrdquo said Grant The MSRDC did not construct a toll plaza but claimed it was blocking the land for future expansion of the Sea LinkThen commissioner S S Kshatriya commented ldquoThe BMC is already suffering from a penalty from the MPCB for not treating the sewage to the required SW2 standards We cannot afford to let MSRDC have land for the next 4 to 5 years please hand over our land at the earliestrdquo Kshatriya made these comments in a letter dated November 25 2010 He warned ldquoIf the above land is not made available the BMC cannot treat the sewage from Bandra and Dharavi to the statutory requirement of MPCB In such a situation BMC would be liable for failure to achieve these standards and for the degradation of the environment that would resultrdquoThe MSRDC approached the state claiming the BMCrsquos now modified demand of R20059 crore with interest for the land cost was lsquoabsurdrsquo The MSRDC clearly said the question of paying this amount did not arise It warned that its public undertaking committee PUC had decided if MSRDC was forced to pay up the burden will be transferred to the commuter by way of tollrdquo the MSRDC wrote last year to the state government The BMC claims it is still getting just verbal assurances from the MSRDCThe only option left with the corporation now to carry out reclamation from the sea an area of nearly 30 ha when the construction of the proposed coastal road starts But that is unlikely to be any time soon said officials