MUMBAI: Mahfuz Shaikh, imam of a mosque in Uttan, a coastal town north of Mumbai in Thane district, shakes his head in despair. Devotees have been skipping prayers at the mosque, and attendance among children for daily Quran readings has dipped sharply. The air is just too toxic and it’s making residents, especially children, very sick. “The odour is stomach-turning and devotees prefer to stay at home,” says Shaikh.
The looming problem is the garbage dumping ground in Uttan, which has seeped into and ruined almost every aspect of life in this quiet town. In the last five years, between January 2020 and December 2024, there have been 26 fires here, which roughly translates into residents inhaling toxic smoke for an average five days every month, for more than half a year, according to residents who have moved the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to get the dumping ground relocated.
Here’s what the locals are up against: The 31-hectare dumping ground in Uttan has been spewing smoke and toxic chemicals into the atmosphere for 16 years. Every day, it receives 500 tonnes of waste from the Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation (MBMC). It holds over 9 lakh tonnes of legacy waste.
Recurring fires at the site have made living here unbearable. A Right to Information (RTI) application filed by advocate Godfrey Pimenta of the Watchdog Foundation, a non-profit, reveals that the maximum number of fires, that is eight, were in 2022, followed by seven last year.
In less than two months this year, three fires have broken out at the dumping ground. The most recent one, which started on February 1, raged for seven days. It took 35 fire officers to battle the blaze but the inner pockets of the dump continued to burn and emit smoke. Residents in five villages of Tarodi, Dongri, Chowk, Pali and Uttan lived under a thick blanket of toxic smoke for more than 15 days.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on February 17 directed the MBMC, under whose jurisdiction the dumping ground falls, to submit a detailed report and take preventive measures. In an interim affidavit filed before the NGT, deputy municipal commissioner Sanjay Bangar, MBMC, stated that fire officers will be stationed at the dumping ground in three shifts throughout the day, “to prevent any small fires from rapidly spreading”.
Health, lives in peril
Uttan’s residents, who first approached the NGT in 2015, say the dumping ground has already caused irreparable damage. They told HT that every resident in Uttan suffers from respiratory problems as they frequently inhale the smoke from the burning garbage. Some said that running even a few meters leaves them short of breath.
Fr Oscar Mendonca of Our Lady of Bethlehem Church in Dongri, Uttan, recently conducted a health camp at the church in vicinity. He said, “Because of the fires a lot of people are suffering from several health issues. Even though we cannot prove the correlation between the two, we can certainly say that every other person here has respiratory problems.”
The toxic air has virtually entombed many of the residents in their homes. Ruqsar Begum, who owns a general store, said, “We don’t open our windows and doors unless we have to, but I have to look after the store and sit in the open. My eyes burn all the time and there are rashes on my skin. The other day, the burning sensation was so bad, I had to spend the day with relatives till I felt better.”
Fire-firefighting challenge
The dumping ground is located only a few kilometres from the coast. “The wind blowing in and the methane pockets turn a small fire into a big one in no time,” said Prakash Borade, chief fire officer, MBMC.
On the February 1 blaze, Borade said more than 35 fire officers were deployed, along with seven fire tenders and two water tankers. “The main challenge is that it is a mountain dump, so the source of the fire is not accessible. We can only pour water from above. On the sixth day, the fire was brought under control but the residues inside were still burning,” said Borade. He added that a colossal amount of water was needed. “All the water was drawn from the personal bore wells in people’s properties.”
Residents say the water used to fight the frequent fires is seeping into the ground water and is poisoning their bore wells. “It is our source of drinking water,” said Harold Borges, a resident and former corporator from Mira-Bhayander.
The water flows right through the dump and seeps into the surrounding farmland at the base of the mountain of garbage. “If you look at satellite images of the dumping ground, the surrounding water bodies have started showing a red tint,” claimed Meenaz Kaklia, the advocate representing the Uttan residents in the NGT.
The NGT order
Uttan’s residents are struggling to get the dumping ground relocated but, regardless of the outcome, they must go through the motions. In its February 17 directive, the NGT instructed the MBMC to have fire officers stationed at the dumping ground, so that potential fires can be contained and extinguished immediately. It also directed the MBMC to increase the capacity for processing legacy waste “or an alternative site has to be located where this process/treatment can be shifted”. The next hearing is scheduled for March 26.