Why Cities Need To Open The Floodgates

Provided there is civic intent, there are solutions to stop India's cities from flooding

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"We throw garbage where it is not supposed to go," says N.G. Subramanian Iyer, chief financial officer of Antony Waste, the private contractor for Mumbai's municipal body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Antony Waste is among the country's largest solid waste management companies, with contracts for cities such as Noida, Varanasi, and Nagpur, among others. "Most older cities like Chennai do not have a gutter or stormwater drain system. Those that do, such as Mumbai, have gutters choked with plastic and this garbage," adds Iyer.

Solid waste chokes not just stormwater drains but also larger nallahs or channels that drain into the sea in Mumbai or carry away wastewater in landlocked cities. But why does this untreated waste land in the gutters in the first place?

"There is a lack of discipline in maintaining a (garbage collection) schedule in our cities," Iyer says. "If you go to a city like Panjim or Indore, you will notice they are cleaner. That is because the trash collection trucks come to your area at 8 am as promised. But in a city like Mumbai, a collection truck can take, at most, three trips a day. Traffic and congested roads prevent trucks from conducting door-to-door collection on time."

This means, if shopkeepers or a residential area have cleaned their premises and collected waste in the open, it can remain there the entire day. Eventually, piled-up garbage ends up in drains and nallahs, which then become de facto local dumping grounds.

Worst of all, there is cultural, caste-based baggage around picking up trash. "Kachra uthana mera kaam nahin hai (picking up trash is not my job)... there is this mental block in our society," Iyer points out.

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