Enforce Waste Segregation Norms at Sassoon Docks to Let Us Breathe

"Early Deaths due to foul air to cause $10 billion eco loss to Mumbai" reported the Times of India on 15th December, 2021

The truth has finally emerged! Mumbai Port Trust is not treating fish waste and offal generated by the vendors as prescribed in the SOP laid down for any person or entity that generates solid waste in Mumbai city.

I have been living in Colaba for the last twenty five years in an apartment that is adjacent to the Sassoon Docks housed by the Mumbai Port Trust.

The stench emanating from the docks has grown from bad to worse. The smell from rotting fish and prawn peels from the docks has become unbearable and is nauseating. Help! We cannot breathe any more! Is this another tragedy in the making?

In today’s day and age, they permit

1.    Open shelling of prawns on the roadsides
2.    Open drying of these shells in the sun
3.    Women and girls under the age of 14 to work from 4.30am till 10.30 am for the shelling
4.    Sale of sea food on the roads meant for traffic

It then permits the waste to be transported to the suburbs at the end of the day in open trucks and the stench that these trucks emanate as they pass through the bylanes of Colaba and Cuffe Parade is so powerful that residents are unable to breathe any more.

The smell lasts till the wee hours of the night and we, the residents of Colaba and Cuffe Parade, are unable to keep our windows open.

Many asthmatic patients are now sharing that their ailment gets worsened at this time.

Despite approaching the Mumbai Port Trust through visits, letters, emails and phone calls there has been no real response. This petition is on behalf of all residents of Colaba & Cuffe Parade and entire Mumbai as the city suffers when the trucks roll down the lanes of Mumbai, the financial centre of India. 

Some facts about Sassoon Dock

Sassoon Dock consists of 75 ha  acres and 850 m of wharfage. The turn over of fish sales is rumoured to be Rs 3 Cr per day i.e. over Rs 1,000 Cr p.a.

And yet! while the common man in this era of Swachh Bharat is bound by municipal bylaws to segregate and compost all the waste generated, the MPBT that has the luxury of such a huge land bank refuses to treat its waste internally.

Please sign this petition so that this reaches the Prime Minister and Mr Sarbananda Sonowal, the Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, and Mr Shripad Naik, the Minister of State for Tourism and Ports, Shipping and Waterways, and help us, the residents of Colaba and Cuffe Parade, to breathe fresh air which is our birthright.