Mumbai: When Mumbai was declared as an open-defecation free city (ODF) by Quality Council of India, a union-government affiliated agency in October last year, it may have missed checking the forgotten corners of the city. Perched on the tip of Worli is a fort built by the British in the 17th century to monitor pirates and enemy ships. Now, the same fort which overlooks the Mahim Bay and Bandra-Worli Sea Link, is surrounded by all filth and human faeces. The fort is not frequented by the tourists owing to the overcrowded fishing village and isolated location.
With over a km-long narrow stretch from Worli Depot, you will have to use a two-wheeler or your pair of legs to reach the fort. En route fort, you may mistakenly step on a faecal cupcake or debris of plastic, wet and dry waste, if you are not careful. The Fort, which is spick-and-span from within, is equally dirty from the outside, thanks to the locals who prefer to unload all their dump on the edges of the fort.
Ranjana Waydande, 55, living in a small settlement just adjacent to the fort, was emptying a huge bucket of wet waste. When asked why she was dumping this here, she smirked saying, “I have been doing this since I can remember. The municipality truck cannot enter this area due to its narrow structure. Where should we dump our garbage?”
Chinu Kwatra, an environmentalist who along with his volunteers initiated a clean-up drive at the fort, laments how the locals are least bothered and dismiss his clean-up drive as a publicity stunt. “Once when we were picking up the garbage, one man was defecating in front of us. Never mind clearing their garbage, ‘Who has asked you to do this?’ is a retort we often get to hear. I had even thought of giving up on this clean-up drive because of this attitude of the locals, but I won’t. I want to make Worli Fort a popular tourist site,” Kwatra says.
The Worli village houses a huge community of fisherfolk and illegal encroachments, who are partially responsible for the dumping and filth. However, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which is supposed to look after the cleanliness of the area.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official claims that the floating material which lands on the seashore is taken care of by the corporation. Nanavate, Assistant Engineer (G-South Ward), says, “Even if we daily clean the floating material which washes up on the shoreline, it is thrown back because of the high and low tides. We collect about 4 metric tonnes daily. Since the road leading up to the fort is narrow, machines can’t reach there, and the garbage is collected manually on a daily basis from morning until late evening.”
When asked about the garbage around the fort, Nanavate says, “We are currently focussing on the floating material. It is, in fact, a heritage structure which should be maintained by the state or central government. But everyone blames the corporation. Besides, the approach of the people living there is also problematic.”
A local, Rekha Nishad, (25) counters saying BMC officials don’t come up the fort to clean. “We have to take our garbage bins to the BMC man who comes to collect downstairs at a particular location. Now, with the rains, they won’t come. Also, they don’t clean the fort.” Rekha adds with an embarrassed smile, “Open defecation is indeed a problem here but the number has reduced quite a bit. We have gotten used to living in our own mess.”
Let alone the impaired beauty of the 17th-century Fort, the apathetic and laid back attitude of the citizens and civic officials would only add to the 2,146 million litres daily of sewage which the city generates daily.
