Take Your Trash Back, Ocean Tells Mumbai

High tide dumps 9 tons of trash along Marine Drive.

Mumbai: The Indian Ocean has hit back. Having taken enough of rubbish from Mumbai, Friday’s high tide dumped a massive 9 metric tonnes of trash along Marine Drive. In real terms, this is nine times the garbage collected from the promenade every day.

Civic officials were both astonished and alarmed as the trash quantity was unprecedented. The garbage dumped from the ocean overflowed onto the adjoining road and one lane had to be shut for traffic. “The washing up of garbage started an hour before the tide reached its peak height of 4.85m at 12.13pm. Later, when the water began to recede, the garbage remained,” ToI quoted an official.

But the question is whether this trash was generated by Mumbaikars. Professor Kapil Gupta from IIT-B’s department of civil engineering said “The garbage could have originated at some place far away or some ship may have discharged it into the sea.”

The civic authorities should sift through the garbage to find out if it was indeed generated in Mumbai or if the financial capital is taking in someone else’s muck.

Mumbai generates over 7,000 metric tonnes of garbage daily.