Despite efforts made by the civic administration and groups of residents, garbage problems at beaches seems to be expanding with every passing day. Over the years, the garbage collection at beaches has quadrupled. The civic body spends around Rs 1.78 lakh per day for lifting garbage from eight beaches. However, this amount goes upto Rs 2.13 lakh per day during monsoon.
In July, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had to end a contract of garbage lifting in Versova beach midway and appoint a new contractor. The reason was, the former contractor did not have adequate infrastructure to lift garbage as its quantity had increased manifold. "We had given the contract of lifting 5 MT garbage at Versova beach. However, now garbage collection has reached up to 20 MT on a regular basis, while 60 to 80 MT per day during monsoon," said an official from the Solid Waste Management (SWM) department of BMC.
The seriousness of the issue can be gauged by the fact that in the first two weeks of July, over 300 metric tonne of garbage was thrown out across all beaches of the city, during high tide.
This quantity of garbage was separate from what BMC lifts every day from eight beaches across the city coastline. As per the SWM department of BMC, the civic body lifts around 110 metric tonne of garbage every day from eight beaches--Gorai, Manori, Madh Marve, Versova, Juhu, Dadar Mahim, Chowpatty and Chimbai with maximum collection of around 20 MT from Juhu. However, this quantity doubled and even tripled during monsoon.
A senior official from SWM said that the BMC spends around Rs 1.80 lakh per day in lifting garbage from all beaches with a maximum of Rs 45,000 per day on Juhu beach. However, during monsoon, the BMC pays Rs 65,000 per day for lifting garbage. Quantity of garbage collection varies from one beach to another. While Madh Marve generates only 6 MT garbage, Juhu and Chimbai generate around 20 MT garbage per day.
During monsoon, collection of garbage at Juhu and Versova beach reaches its peak with over 75 MT and 60 MT per day. These two beaches alone generate around 135 MT per day during monsoon.
