Report flags 15% water shortfall, rise in garbage output
Despite the BMC having the largest coffers among municipal corporations in the country, the civic body continues to falter in providing basic services to Mumbaikars. Inadequate water supply, improper treatment of sewerage, increasing waste generating couple with increasing complaints of waste, insufficient toilets are some of the problems that the city grapples with, revealed by the Praja Foundation's annual report on the status of civic issues.
Water supply
It is no secret that Mumbai fails to meet its population's water needs by 15%. While it receives 4,370 MLD (million liters daily), 395 MLD is lost along the way due to evaporation and leaks. These loses, also termed non-revenue water (NRW) have been reduced gradually, but still form 9% of the quantity routed towards the city. The deficit of 689 MLD is borne in great part by the city's slum population, who make up for the lack through tankers.
Non-slum homes generally receive a quantum of 135 lpcd (litres per capita daily) as per central guidelines, while slum homes get 45 lpcd. This adds to the slums expenditure on water – if they supplement the entire deficit with tankers – to ₹736 per month, compared to the usual ₹25 per month.
Out of these, only 8% of the city's population receives 24/7 water supply. One aspect in which Mumbai continues to shine is that of water quality, with only 0.33% of water samples turning up unfit for drinking.
Sewerage
Mumbai's new crop of sewerage treatment plants (STP) are all in various stages of construction, leaving the current level of sewerage treatment woeful. But the situation worsened in 2024.
Due to the upgrades, an additional two STPs at Bandra and Worli failed to adequately treat sewage as per pollution norms set by the center and state, in contrast with their track records in the previous years. They join the other STPs of Versova, Bhandup, Malad, and Ghatkopar in dismal records of wastewater treatment. The only exceptions are the STPs at Colaba and Charkop, treating Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) and Total Suspended Solids (TSS) adequately.
Unsurprisingly, this leads to highly polluted water bodies. The Mithi river takes the cake among all of them, with a maximum level of fecal coliform of 5,40,000 MNP per 100ml in 2023, while the limit is 2500MPN/100ml.
Solid waste management
Indicating Mumbai's waste generation continues to gradually increase, RTI data revealed the city threw away 6,656 MTD (million tons per day) in 2024. This was a 1% increase from 2023, and a 4% rise from 2022.
Most of this garbage - 4,832 MTD – is food waste, followed by construction and demolition waste. The wards which generated the most trash were Ward A (Churchgate, Colaba), Ward C (xx), and Ward H/West (Bandra and Khar West). Conversely, Wards R/South, R/North and D generated the most garbage.
Despite rules mandating so, 64% of bulk waste generators (BWG) in 2024 were not treating their wet waste on site.
With the largely centralized model of waste processing in place – most of the waste is dumped at Kanjurmarg and Deonar – much is spent on the trasportation of waste, from home to refuse transfer station (RTS) to dump. In 2024, Praja estimated this added up to an approximate cost of ₹883 crore per year.
To run the waste processing site at Kanjurmarg, the BMC spends another approximate ₹602 crores per year.
Parallelly, the closed landfill at Mulund is currently undergoing biomining. 62% of the legacy waste has been disposed from October 2019 to December 2024, but with a deadline of June 2025, the target is improbable to be met.
Toilets
The number of public and community toilet seats remained inadequate in 2024, doubly so for women.
One in four public toilet seats in 2024 are for women, making 1 seat available per 1,820 women. For men, 1 seat is shared between 752 men.
With regards to community toilets shared by slum settlements in 2023, one toilet seat is shared between 202 men and one between 164 women, far higher than the prescribed norm to have one community toilet for 35 men and 25 women. 60% of them lacked electricity and 69% water connections.
AQI
In 2024, average AQI over the months in the city was better than the previous years. Only four months – Jan, Feb, Nov, Dec - had their overall AQI in the moderate category, as opposed to six in 2023.
Complaints
Citizens' complaints poured in from all corners in 2024, reaching 1,15,396. But this was a decrease from the previous year's reach of 1,20,296. Issues of solid waste, air pollution, toilets and water supply saw the rgeatest increase in number of complaints.
Vacancies
The civic body has a total 41% vacancy in the sancationed posts, with the departments of Education having a 59% vacancy, Storm Water Drains 57%, Roads & Traffic 54% and SWM 17%.
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