Miffed at Mumbai’s worsening air quality, 650 residents write to BMC to swing to action mode

The signatories have urged Chahal to take immediate measures to mitigate the city’s air pollution and also to rethink the BMC’s plan for setting up 14 smog towers since they have been proven to be ineffective in the long run.

This is the first time such a large group from Mumbai and its suburbs has come forward urging the civic chief to expedite measures on addressing bad air quality.

“During Covid times we led the way in managing the disease and saving lives. Today the lives saved are being lost! All because of corporate and administrative negligence and emphasis on the wrong ideas of development,” read the letter. The residents also expressed shock and disappointment at the fact that the BMC has earmarked only Rs 25 crore from its Rs 52,000-crore budget to purify the air.

Meanwhile, Mumbai’s Air Quality Index (AQI) improved to the ‘moderate’ category on Wednesday, nearly three weeks after staying in the ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ categories. The city on Wednesday recorded an AQI of 139.

In the letter, the residents pointed out that the current air quality is affecting the health condition of senior citizens and children.

Faredoon Bhujwala, a resident from Churchgate and one of the signatories, said that the main reason for the city’s poor air quality is due to the loss of tree cover.

“Over the past few years, we have seen how thousands of trees across Mumbai have been axed in the name of development projects like Mumbai Metro and other infrastructure works. After the tree is cut, the top soil is concretized and the oxygen level goes down. Now with so many trees being cut down in such a short span of time, there is an imbalance that has happened in the environment which is affecting the air quality,” said Bhujwala.

Another resident and signatory Lalita Deonalli said that she and her husband are having breathing problems as “almost the entire Mumbai has been dug up”. “I stay in Bandra near Linking Road where Metro works are going on. My husband and I are senior citizens, and as a result of the bad air quality, both of us are falling sick very often.”

The citizens have suggested the civic administration to stop or reduce construction and industrial activities during the days when the city experiences ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’ air quality. They demanded the roads near the construction and industrial areas be sprayed with water at regular intervals.

They have also suggested that the current fleet of BEST buses be augmented so that improved frequency may encourage people to use public transport running on clean energy instead of using their own vehicles, which may bring down carbon emission levels.

Experts have said that to counter the current situation, the administration, and corporate entities need to work in tandem.

“The main problem in Mumbai is how dust particles are getting displaced from one place to another and this could be solved only if the BMC involves all the corporate entities that are functioning in Mumbai,” Bhagwan Kesbhat, founder of NGO ‘Waatavaran’ told The Indian Express.

According to Kesbhat Mumbai should take a cue from Pune, where corporate houses have voluntarily come together to clean the city roads using vacuum cleaners to mitigate dust pollution. “Similar steps need to be adapted in Mumbai because the administration alone cannot do everything unless they involve all the major stakeholders in the market because this is a social responsibility as well,” Kesbhat said.

Last week, this NGO had started an online signature campaign against air pollution in Mumbai.

Meanwhile, when contacted civic officials said that the BMC is framing a detailed policy towards mitigating air quality and the guidelines for the same will be issued by end of March.

Meanwhile, Dr Gufran Beig, senior scientist and project manager of SAFAR, said that currently Mumbai has experienced rain and storms and many adjoining districts have also seen moderate rainfall with gusty winds. “Due to this phenomenon that dust particles have been blown away. Now the air quality may worsen again if the wind speed again slows down in the days to come,” Beig said.