A burning mountain of trash in Mumbai fuels middle-class outcry

      Recently residents of Mumbai, mostly urban professionals, have started to refer to themselves as "weekend warriors" who have taken to social media, held marches and protest sit-ins, as well as formed petitions that call for something to be done about the worsening conditions of the Deonar garbage dump that has been burning for days.
     The Deonar garbage dump was established in 1927 and holds over 10,000 tons of unsegregated and untreated waste.This 300 acre open air trash mountain, comparable to the size of the mall in Washington, recently caught fire again, and according to NASA images, its smoke was even visible from space. The garbage dump has prompted several health, environmental, and even social class concerns.
     The thick poisonous smoke of "Mumbai's silent killer" has moved their air quality rating from "poor" to "very poor" in the past month. The noxious smoke has left residents blinded and coughing for several days.Additionally many of the firefighters working the scene have also been hospitalized for becoming sick. The clinics are swarming with neighborhood patients. Asthmatic patients no longer respond to their medication, and has also led to illness and death among infants.
      While middle class residents want the dump to be managed and shut down, frustration is also found among the "trash pickers" who live along the garbage dump's outer rim. This class relies on the dump to selling its scrap metal, plastic, and coconut shells to provide income for their families. Politicians argue if the livelihood of a few thousand trash pickers is worth compromising the health of the city.
       The government has tried to make progress with the issue, however some find it unsuccessful. Residents pointed out that the government hasn't even made a health advisory in regards to the poor air quality. The government has made it clear that they want to move the site to a more rural location, but the feasibly of the project will take more than a year to complete without making the same mistakes as those made with the Deonar dump. Additionally surveillance authorities have been stationed at the dump to monitor if the dump is self igniting or if it is being caused by environmental factors. Officials are also looking at making trash segregation a mandatory practice among residents.This practice is rare to their cultural, and they may not have the proper equipment to treat or even collect the waste. Officials also accused residents of tarnishing Mumbai's image and spreading unnecessary panic, but I believe the sheer scale of this environmental, health, and socio-political has huge grounds for concern and global awareness.

--Kassie Whaling--

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/a-burning-mountain-of-trash-in-mumbai-fuels-middle-class-outcry/2016/04/11/28336511-33b4-437d-8f4d-f53dba9fdf0e_story.html