Highest pollution levels in Chembur, Deonar, Mahul: Climate action plan data
MUMBAI: According to information presented during a public consultation on Monday – pursuant to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) proposed climate action plan for the city – the M-east (M-E) ward was found to suffer from the highest levels of air pollution out of the 24 administrative wards in Mumbai.
This is not out of the ordinary, experts and officials emphasised, as areas within M-E – Chembur, Deonar, Mahul, Govandi, among others – have long been notorious for higher pollution levels owing to the presence of a power plant at Trombay, the Deonar landfill and petroleum refineries among other contributing factors.
Though raw data used by the World Resources Institute (WRI), India, in arriving at this assessment is not publicly available, experts working on drafting the Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP) said that M-E ward suffers from “consistently higher levels” of gaseous pollutants, including sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide. This was based on the analysis of remote sensing data from June 2019 to May 2020, obtained from the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-5p satellite.
An official with the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), occupying the post of regional officer, said, on the condition of anonymity, said, “M-E ward is certainly the most polluted. There is presence of a power plant and refineries in addition to a construction boom in the past two decades which has led to illegal dumping of construction waste in open areas, contributing to air pollution. The geography of the area also does not allow for coastal winds to clean up particulate matter the way it happens on the western sea front, as Trombay hills act as windbreakers. Another major source of pollution in the area is informal recycling units, which burn waste to obtain scrappable metals from waste.”
However, the problem of gaseous pollutants is not confined to M-E ward alone. WRI India’s presentation also showed other wards – M-west (Chembur), H-W (Bandra, Khar) and H-E (Bandra East, Dharavi, Mahim), G-north (Dadar), F-N (Matunga), K-E (Andheri East), L (Kurla) and N (Ghatkopar) wards –to be suffering from a high concentration of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), which emanates largely from power generation, industries and diesel use (mainly in heavy duty vehicles).
Carbon monoxide pollution was also found to be high mainly in T (Mulund West), G-south (Worli), F-S (Parel) and M-W wards, while sulphur dioxide pollution was found to be highest in H-W, H-E, G-N, F-N, M-W and S (Bhandup) wards.
In addition to gaseous pollutants, pollution control board and IIT Madras (IIT-M) data analysed by WRI found that south and central Mumbai suffer from the highest concentrations of PM2.5 – respirable particulate matter which is about thirty times thinner than a human hair – between June 2019 and May 2021.
K-E ward (where the airport is located) was found to have an average annual concentration of around 100ug/m3 (micrograms per cubic metre of air), which is more than double the safe limit of 40ug/m3. However, the lack of disaggregated data in the WRI’S presentation makes it hard to pinpoint the distribution of PM2.5 across the city.
Debi Goenka, executive trustee, conservation action group (CAG), said, “M-E ward may be the most polluted area in the city, but the BMC would have been aware of this since the early 1980s. The real question is why and who is accountable for this? Will BMC move the industries out of the area now? Authorities, including BMC and MPCB (Maharashtra Pollution Control Board), have both previously maintained that there is no air pollution in the area, especially when they wanted to set up slum rehabilitation projects in Mahul. It’s a bit too late to admit to the obvious now.”
As a part of the environment status report for BMC, the Environmental Pollution Research Centre (EPRC) of King Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital had carried out a respiratory morbidity survey of 2,483 patients across the city between 2015 -16, mostly focusing on workplaces and residential areas. The study stated that of the 406 residents surveyed at Mahul village in Chembur, 46.7% were unhealthy.
At Bainganwadi in Deonar, more than four of every 10 respondents had respiratory problems. Chembur has also been recognised as a ‘critically polluted area’ with respect to air quality by the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) latest available Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) assessment in 2018.
M-east ward is certainly the most polluted. There is presence of a power plant and refineries in addition to a construction boom in the past two decades which has led to illegal dumping of construction waste in open areas, contributing to air pollution. OFFICIAL , Maharashtra Pollution Control Board