Monsoons & Mumbai: How Diseases Spread Due To Ineffective Sanitation

Just beneath the surface of Mumbai’s Maximum City veneer lies a festering, overloaded sanitation system.

A fact we are reminded of every year when the monsoons roll along.

While the southwest monsoon itself is a force to contend with, in Mumbai, its effects are exacerbated by the sheer lack of effective and well-managed sanitation in the city.

Closely linked to issues of mismanaged and largely non-existent sanitation are ill-health, rapidly spreading dangerous infectious diseases, and a spike in killer diseases like dengue and diarrhoea.

Water is a haven for a wide variety of viruses, bacteria, parasites, and other pathogens.

When stagnant, it poses a unique challenge and threat, and even when flowing (through a badly planned system), it is known to be an unsafe space that is susceptible to becoming a breeding ground for disease and contamination.

The fact of the matter is that the rapid and uncontrolled growth in our metros not only requires an equally rapid growth in public health and sanitation management but also consideration of the impact our sanitation and waste have on the environment around us.

With the onset of the monsoon, there is a significant spike in the emergence of waterborne diseases, including respiratory disorders, infections, leptospirosis, typhoid, jaundice, and hepatitis.

In an ideal world, the notion that prevention is better than a cure would spur us to make improvements year after year, so that we do not find ourselves in a quandary every monsoon.

However, the harsh reality in a city like this, which bears the brunt of the coastal monsoon – averaging 2,200 mm – is that we are woefully underprepared in terms of sanitation.

At the country level, the Swachh Bharat Mission has been committed to ensuring access to clean water and sanitation for all since 2014.

Although over 12 million toilets have been constructed in rural areas, several unaddressed loopholes in the system remain.

Take cities like Mumbai, for example, where 42% of its 12 million people live in slums, where access to toilets and safe sanitation routinely becomes a matter of life and death.

On April 28 this year, two residents of the Saisadan Chawl in Bhandup drowned in a toilet mishap in the toilet block.

A compromised septic tank that was filled beyond its capacity caved, dragging the two individuals down with it and requiring a seven-hour rescue operation before their bodies were retrieved.

According to this report by the Observer Research Foundation, “Nearly 50 lakh residents of the city’s notified slums (slums which existed before the 1995/2000 cut-off date of the Slum Rehabilitation Scheme and therefore eligible for free housing under the scheme) are served by 750-odd community toilet blocks constructed under the World Bank-initiated Slum Sanitation Programme (SSP). These toilets have 26,379 seats, which approximately means one toilet seat to be shared by 190 users, as against the MCGM-accepted WHO norms of one toilet per 50 people. This overwhelming load is reduced by those who use the nearly 30,000-odd free-to-use MHADA toilets, those who can afford to daily use the other pay-and-use facilities, and those who defecate in the open.”

Yes, you read that right. One toilet per 190 citizens. So, is it really a wonder that mishaps like these occur with such regularity?

But that is not all.

The infrastructural inadequacies are only the tip of the iceberg, dragging along the incredible weight of a monstrous disease threat year after year.

Clogged drains, over-polluted waterways, and a mismanaged solid waste disposal system have caused diseases like diarrhoea to claim over 100,000 childrens living in India every year.

20% of the 500,000+ children under five years who lose their lives annually due to severe dehydration caused by diarrhoea are from India.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) place a renewed focus on achieving universal access to safe water and basic sanitation by 2030.

Our current reality is that one in every two Indians still lacks access to adequate sanitation facilities.

Open defecation continues to persist, even in urban areas like Mumbai, due to the sheer load on a system that is cowering under the weight of a burgeoning population.

Our sanitation solutions address the challenges plaguing urban areas in India today and provide solutions for key issues, such as enabling toilets in the smallest spaces and ensuring the shortest possible time for the complete decomposition of toilet waste.

Additionally, they can be applied to existing defunct toilets or installed in areas where none previously existed.

By combining the best of modern biotechnology with scientific solutions that naturally exist in nature, we’ve reevaluated septic tank management and bio-toilets with a keen eye to make them relevant and beneficial to our current reality and context.

The United Nations estimates that by 2050, a quarter of the world’s population could potentially be affected by chronic or recurring shortages of water, while millions will continue to die due to diseases linked with inadequate and unsafe water.

Since 1990, approximately 2.5 billion people have gained access to improved sources of drinking water. Yet, 663 million people remain without.

But perhaps, if we look at the crux of the issue – sanitation – we can slow this disaster in the making.

And maybe even halt it completely?