9,000 tonnes of garbage at Marine Drive: Bombay HC asks BMC for solution

Days after the sea threw up tonnes of garbage along Marine Drive during high tide, the Bombay High Court asked the BMC and state government for a solution to the problem.

A division bench of justices A S Oka and Riyaz Chagla was on Monday hearing a PIL filed by ‘Citizens Circle for Social Welfare and Education’ NGO seeking guidelines for disposing garbage and preventing the discharge of any debris or sewage into the sea.

During the hearing, the petitioner’s lawyer, Shehzad Naqvi, highlighted that around 9,000 tonnes of debris and garbage was spewed by the Arabian Sea along the Marine Drive promenade during a high tide earlier this month.

“This is a serious issue. What is the solution to this? There is so much garbage, debris and sewage discharged into the sea. The civic body will have to do something about this,” the court said.

During a previous hearing, the bench stated that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was discharging large quantities of untreated sewage into the sea, citing data published in the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) report.

“As per the report, out of 2,671 million litres of sewage per day, 2,016 million litre is treated at eight sewage treatment plants by the BMC. The remaining 655 million litres of untreated sewage is discharged directly into the sea at different locations,” Justice Oka said.

“The recent incident at the Marine Drive has shown that the discharge of such large quantities of untreated sewage in the sea is creating pollution,” he said.

The bench has directed the BMC and state’s Environment Department to file affidavits listing steps to deal with the issue by August 10.

---

Related: Dolphin carcass found amid waste at Juhu Silver beach: 2nd case in 2 days, 4th this month

---