Mumbai's Juhu Beach chokes on garbage as monsoon waste piles up, 1,800 tonnes removed in 10 Days

Rozana Spokesman

News, Nation

Monsoon rains flood Juhu Beach with garbage, sparking a cleanup drive and political blame game.

1,800 Tonnes of Waste Removed in 10 Days

Mumbai's famous Juhu Beach has turned into a mound of garbage. Visitors to the beach can currently see Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) workers using machines to clear away huge piles of trash.The BMC said that heavy rainfall in Mumbai in the first week of July led to this massive accumulation of waste at Juhu Beach. More than 1,000 mm of rain was recorded in the city in just the early days of the month.

The BMC stated: "Floating garbage carried by small drains and natural waterways was swept in large quantities into the Arabian Sea. Now tidal waves are bringing this waste back to the shore. The roughly 7-kilometre-long Juhu Beach is currently receiving about 350 metric tonnes of garbage every day."

According to the BMC: "Despite these unprecedented conditions, the BMC is continuously running a beach-cleaning drive. We are clearing around 180 metric tonnes of garbage every day. In just the last ten days, about 1,800 metric tonnes of waste has been removed from the beach and sent for scientific disposal. On normal days, Juhu Beach typically receives only around 60 metric tonnes of garbage per day."

Politics has now begun over this mound of garbage. Kishori Pednekar, leader of the opposition in the BMC, visited Juhu Beach on Wednesday. Launching an attack, she said: "I visited Juhu Beach after seeing videos on social media. What exactly is the BMC doing? This is garbage from the drains that is washing into the sea. This clearly means that pre-monsoon cleaning work was not done properly. We are going to send a white paper on the BMC's expenditures."

On the other hand, BJP Mumbai president and MLA Amit Satam also inspected Juhu Beach along with BMC officials. He said: "Given the huge amount of garbage that has washed up on the beach this year during high tide, I visited Juhu Beach with BMC officials to review the cleaning arrangements. We have deployed additional staff and machinery to speed up the cleaning process."