Dirt wave

“Trucks come and collect the garbage from beaches everyday but even then it is impossible to keep them clean especially in monsoon,” says R S Mashelkar, senior life guard at Aksa beach. Sneha, a volunteer who participates in cleaning drives, says, “In monsoon, beach cleaning drives can truly be successful only if there is better management of waste throughout the city.”

“On an average a total of 20-25 tonne of garbage is collected from the city’s beaches which include Girgaum, Dadar, Mahim, Juhu, Aksa, and Gorai,” says Patil. “In monsoon, the garbage collected from here increases to at least 90 metric tonnes per day,” he adds.

In total, Mumbai generates almost 6,000 tonnes of waste, of which at least 5% is plastic, and most of it flows towards the seas during monsoon, according to SWM officials. According to a senior official, many pockets of the city do not have a proper solid waste disposal mechanism until now. In those cases, people throw garbage near their houses and if not taken to dumping grounds, it will most likely end up flowing towards seas during a high tide pressure, he added. These beaches turn even dirtier during Ganesh Chaturthi as most idols, and other waste including flowers and thermocol material, are immersed in the sea.