Sea dumps garbage on Marine Drive shores: HC asks govt, BMC plan to deal with trash, asks officials to appear in court next month

BMC workers hold a cleanliness drive at Juhu beach. A decompsed body of dolphin was washed ashore on Monday morning. (Express photo by Santosh Parab)

Expressing serious concern over the sea dumping 9 tonnes of garbage at Marine Lines during a high tide earlier this month, the Bombay High Court on Monday directed officials from the state Ministry of Environment and Brihanmum-bai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to appear before it next month and inform how they plan to deal with the situation.

According to the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), 655 million litres of sewage are discharged without treatment every day into the sea, which in turn deposits the garbage along the shore during high tides.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Citizen Circle for Social Welfare and Education, an NGO, through their lawyer Shehzad Naqvi, seeking a direction and to frame appropriate guidelines to stop pollution of the coastal waters of Mumbai City.

The NGO, which recently filed a Public Interest Litigation, told the court that around 9 tonnes of debris and garbage were thrown back on the shore by the sea along the Marine Drive promenade during the high tide in early July.

A division bench of Justice A S Oka and Justice R I Chagla, after perusing the report submitted by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) in October last year, said that the report shows that out of 2,671 million litre per day of sewage generated in the city, 655 million litres do not receive any treatment and are discharged directly into the sea at different locations.

They asked officials from the state Ministry of Environment and BMC to appear before the court on August 10.