Mumbai: Sea beats the crap out of the city

Last week, Mumbaikars got some direct feedback from the sea. During high tide and heavy rains, the sea spewed back just a fraction of the garbage the citizens have dumped into it over the years — and it weighed in tonnes.

The coastline, right from the arc of Marine Drive to the popular Juhu beach, received stormy sprays of PET bottles, plastic bags, tetrapacks, Thermocol — all, ironically, banned recently — among things like footwear and rags.

The striking images caught the attention of the world media. Those cleaning the promenades and beaches reported "shock" and "disgust" at the mass of dump flying back through the shore.

Clearly, the city's has a littering problem, its waste management system is a mess, and, worryingly, not enough citizens have a care to spare.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation cleared over 50 metric tonnes of waste last week from Marine Drive promenade alone, a sixth of the total 300 metric tonnes from all of the coasts including Juhu, Dadar and Girgaum.

Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner, A ward (that is, SoBo), said that this year the quantum of waste thrown back by the sea was unusually high. "Over 50 staff have been deployed to clean Marine Drive daily. We can only hope that Mumbaikars realise this is the reason why a ban on plastic and Thermocol was necessary," he said.

Why Trash Is Booming

Gopal Jhaveri, co-founder of River March, a citizens' movement for rejuvenation of Mumbai's four rivers, Mithi, Oshiwara, Poisar and Dahisar, is not surprised. The images saved on his phone show solid waste choking stretches of the rivers.

"The BMC doesn't clear this waste from the rivers and its tributaries. When it rains, the rivers carry all this trash into the Arabian Sea," he said. The same goes for the waste dumped into storm water drains across the city all year round.

Former principal scientist at Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), Dr Vinay Deshmukh, connected the dots in detail. During monsoon, he said, extremely strong winds blow the water off the surface of the sea, causing water from the deep to come on the top. "The phenomenon, called upwelling, brings all the trash in the deep to the surface, and the waves bring it to the shore. Coupled with extremely strong winds and high tide, the crashing waves deposit all of it on the beaches and promenades," he said.

This happens pronouncedly in monsoons when the winds blow from sea to land, unlike the other way round the rest of the year.

Most of this marine trash is non-biodegradable plastic, which can stay intact for over 700 years, is released into the sea from Malad creek near Versova, he said. " So it's the Versova and Juhu beaches that gather the most waste," he said. The only long-term solutions? Proper waste management system, and cutting down on the waste itself.

It's Stifling Marine Life

Marine enthusiast Pradip Patade, who has been documenting life along the city's shores for a decade, remembers a day in 2016 when he rescued a catfish stuck in a plastic bag, struggling for life in the shallows at Girgaum.

"Ever since that day, as soon as I spot garbage or tar balls on the beach, I register complaints with BMC so they begin clearing it," he said.

CMFRI's Dr Deshmukh points out the dangers posed to sea creatures. "Most of the marine litter remains in the deep and is consumed by whales, dolphins and other fish, which think it is their food. Turtles are known to eat plastic bags as they mistake it for jellyfish," he said.

The same litter, when thrown out to the shores during monsoon, smothers species that thrive on beaches. Several studies show how younger fish and fish larvae that feed near the shores are adversely hit by the plastic.

Patade, who is the co-founder of Marine Life Of Mumbai (MLOM), which conducts shore walks to raise awareness about Mumbai's rich marine life, said that in summer and winter, several burrowing species can be spotted in shallow waters as well as on beaches, but during rains, nothing can be seen as everything is covered with in plastic sheets. "Beaches like Juhu and Dadar have trash up to two feet deep at times. Species like crabs, anemones and bivales, which are commonly visible, are stuck under this litter."

But littering is just a fraction of the whole that is destroying the water bodies. About 93 per cent of the pollution comes from the discharge of domestic waste into creeks. "About 2,671 million litres a day (mld) of sewage is generated, of which 2,016 mld is treated in plants at eight locations, and about 655 mld was being discharged untreated into the creeks," said a recent affidavit filed by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) before the National Green Tribunal (NGT).

Beauty And The Beach

Where life goes cheap, aesthetics are a distant concern. But Mumbai's beaches are its major tourist draws and when a majority of them are laid waste to, visitors keep at a distance. "The litter sprays at Marine Drive became international news, which has hit tourism," said a civic official.

Fisherfolk Tales

"On days I manage to net 5 kg fish and 20 kg plastic," said Vishnu Koli, a Versova fisherman. "I feel like I'm helping clean the sea more than fishing in the last few years," he laughed humourlessly.

Fishermen in and around Thane, Malad, Versova, Mahim and Vashi creeks using gill nets said their catch is embedded in trash. "We spend more time clearing nets than cleaning fishes. If our nets get damaged, it costs Rs 25,000-30,000 to mend them. The catch is already dwindling by the day," said Koli.

Ganesh Nakhawa, vice-chairman of Purse Seine Fishing Welfare Association, said that while traditional fishermen are the worst affected by littering of the seas, modern ones like those with his association are feeling the pinch: "The months of August, September, October are the worst, when even deep-sea fishing yields heaps of litter. The mass goes down over the rest of the months."

Dr Deshmukh recalled the time spent he spent for his research as a scientist with the fishing community. He said he saw 70 to 80 per cent of their fishing nets riddled with junk. "The trash will continue to hound sea life as well as fishermen," he warned.

Damodar Tandel, the president of Akhil Maharashtra Machimar Kriti Samiti, a fisherfolk's body, has been leading the community in demanding compensation from the state government for the decline in their catch.

"Fishermen today are in a far worse position than the farmers. The catch has been reducing drastically due to continuous pollution. And if the government doesn't pay attention to the fishing sector, there will be mass suicides," he said.

....Expert voices

We have to remember these images of trash being dumped by the sea beyond the rainy season. It should serve as a warning for us to manage our waste. Our sea, mangroves, beaches, shores are full of plastic waste. And what we are seeing is mostly the floating garbage that has been thrown back by the ocean. One can only imagine the decades of waste that has been dumped into the sea still lying on the seabed.
—Anand Pendharkar, environmentalist

The amount of waste that was thrown by the sea was unprecedented, but the BMC did a wonderful job of cleaning the trash. We all have a share in this. The citizens will have to play a proactive role to manage waste. What also surprised us was the amount of chappals that came along with plastic and other trash. 
—Mahendra Hemdev, member, Marine Drive Residents’ Association

We cleared 200 tonnes of trash from the Worli fishing village in 24 hours. While the plastic ban is a most welcome step, we also need to crack down on littering. Because unless littering in the drains stops, the situation will not change
—Chinu Kwatra, leading the Dadar beach clean-up 

One of the biggest contributors to marine litter in Mumbai is the plastic waste and garbage dumped over the years into the city’s four rivers and several tributaries. Unless these are regularly cleaned and completely restored, this menace cannot be stopped. The state government will have to ensure all authorities including the BMC take charge.
—Gopal Jhaveri, founder, River March movement 

Cleaning the garbage coming from the sea is one of the most difficult tasks. The labourer has to be keep bending, picking up the small and big trash, which puts immense stress on their muscles. Also, while cleaning, they brave heavy rains, winds and are constantly drenched by waves that are full of sewage.
—Milind Ranade, general secretary, Kachra Vahatuk Shramik Sangh, Mumbai