Govandi bio-waste treatment plant: Everyone is passing the buck, say residents

The BMC has finally clarified its position on the Govandi biomedical waste facility issue stating that all it did was provide land for it Harshad Kale deputy municipal commissioner of Zone V in an email stated that the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board MPCB had invited a tender for setting up the plantKale also instructed the chief engineer of solid waste management to meet with locals as soon as possible and hear their grievancesThe email which was sent to citizensrsquo representatives and civic officials on Wednesday read ldquoFor the past few months Govandi citizens have been repeatedly seeking appointments to put forth their grievances regarding the biomedical incinerator plant at GhatkoparMankhurd Link Road Mankhurd From the information provided to the undersigned by the MEast ward previously this office had informed DMC SWM to call them for a hearing and process their grievances on merit Unfortunately it appears that this hearing has not yet been fructifiedrdquoThe biomedical waste facility at Govandi on December 26 2022 Fil picSatej ShindeKale further wrote ldquoFrom the report submitted by the assistant commissioner M East ward I understand that this plant was set up by MPCB in 2009 for processing biomedical waste The role of the BMC was to only provide them with the land The tender for setting up the biomedical plant was invited by the MPCB and the operation and monitoring thereof are also done by the MPCB The period of operation is up to the year 2029 I further understand that the MPCB regularly monitors the pollution levels generated by this plant As per the report from the M East ward no hazardous medical effect on Govandi citizens has been noticed by the health department of the BMCrdquoM East ward covers nearly 250 slum pockets and is already a known tuberculosis hotspot For years residents have alleged that they have been treated as guinea pigs for various projects leading to serious health hazards for themThe ward comprises Govandi Deonar Shivaji Nagar and Cheetah Camp which mainly consists of slums and lowincome group housesAlso read 2200 trees to vanish for three sewage treatment plants in MumbaiThe Tata Institute of Social Sciences TISS Mumbai conducted a study titled Social Economic Conditions and Vulnerabilities in 2015 to shed light on the socioeconomic circumstances of Mumbairsquos M East WardldquoOf major illnesses more than 50 per cent of respondents reported having what are known as lifestyle illnesses such as heart disease diabetes respiratory conditions and high blood pressure followed by tuberculosis TBrdquo according to the TISS surveyBesides this an RTI response dated September 2022 on the medical records of people infected with TB respiratory diseases and lung cancer in the M East ward revealed a concerning trend that showed at least 45005000 people were diagnosed with TB every year and the number of deaths due to the disease from 2013 till May 2022 was 1877 Most TB cases in the ward were reported by respondents from Shivaji Nagar Mankhurd and BaiganwadiIn a legal notice to the state government and MPCB dated November 12 2022 Faiyaz Alam Shaikh resident of Shivaji Nagar Govandi and founderpresident of the NGO New Sangam Welfare Society expressed serious concern over public health in the wardThe Bombay High Court is currently hearing the PIL in connection with the matterShaikh said ldquoEveryone is just passing the buck Nobody seems to be intent on helping us resolve the issue by stopping the source of pollution in our vicinity If you ask the BMC what information it has about health issues in the area it might not have any recent data We will be waiting for it to conduct a meeting as instructed by the DMC and submit all the documents and reports we have Following this we will decide our next course of actionrdquo250No of slum pockets in M East ward