Mumbai AQI: BMC to wash city’s pollution woes away

This initiative aims to mitigate the spread of dust. File pic/Rane Ashish

As air pollution continues to plague urban areas, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is taking action to combat the growing crisis in Mumbai. Learning from previous challenges, the civic body has unveiled an ambitious plan to sprinkle borewell water on half of the city's roads daily. This initiative aims to mitigate the spread of dust and improve air quality. To implement this plan, the BMC has contracted agencies to provide 106 tankers, each equipped with a 6,000-litre capacity and high-pressure jet sprays. The goal is to cover approximately 1,060 roads each day.

The tankers will be deployed in 24 wards as needed according to a schedule. "Each tanker will cover approximately eight to 10 km of roads in two daily rounds. This means 1,060 roads can be covered within a day, out of a total network of 2,100 km of roads in the city. Due to the high-pressure spray, it will use less water," said an official from the solid waste management department of the BMC. It will cost around Rs 7 crore to hire the tankers for 90 days. The schedule for the rounds will be decided at the ward level.

Last year, the tankers were deployed at the ward level. The BMC had set a target to wash 650 km of roads every day, but this was not achieved. Approximately 400 to 450 km of roads were washed daily. The quantity of water required to wash the roads was also a concern, varying between 2,000 litres and 3,500 litres per km for each ward, and the BMC spent approximately Rs 13 crore to wash the roads.

What is the plan?

The BMC has hired agencies that will provide 106 tankers every day. The tankers, equipped with high-pressure sprays and a 6,000-litre storage capacity, can cover around eight to 10 km of roads in two rounds. Each km of road will require around 1,000 to 1,500 litres of water, depending on the width of the road. The estimated cost to execute the plan for three months is Rs 7 crore.

Last year, the BMC deployed around 150 tankers to sprinkle water on 650 km of roads daily. The city has a network of around 2,100 km of roads, so it was planned to cover every road within three days. Although the BMC didn't achieve the 650 km per day target, they managed to cover close to 450 km of roads.

The BMC formed a ward-level air pollution mitigation squad to enforce construction guidelines, featuring measures like dust screens and water sprinkling. The teams issued 610 show-cause notices and 891 stop-work notices to defaulters. This year, the BMC is also planning to inspect construction sites.

What did not work?

Delhi considered cloud seeding to reduce air pollution by releasing silver iodide (AgI) into the atmosphere to help create tiny ice nuclei in clouds necessary for rain. The civic body had set its sights on implementing this project in Mumbai as well, but the experiment wasn't carried out in Delhi due to unfavourable meteorological conditions. The BMC also planned to install jet sprays at entry points to the city to clean dust from vehicles, but this plan was shelved.