Mumbai - It's not that dirty...

It's official, Forbes magazine has rated Mumbai as the seventh dirtiest city in the world!!
Mercer Human Resource Consulting's 2007 Report on Health and Sanitation Ranked 215 cities as part of a Quality of Life report, addressing 29 civic criteria including, levels of air pollution, waste management, water potability, hospital supplies, medical services and the presence of infectious diseases. Bonanza!!!
For the record all cities are positioned against New York, the base city with an index score of 100.
The worst on the latest list is, Baku, Azerbaijan with a score of 27.6, the cleanest goes to Calgary, Canada, with a score of 131.7. Delhi was ranked a few pegs higher than Mumbai at 24th.
The local authorities reject the ranking claiming the survey conducted contacted too many expatriates giving a biased opinion and discounting the city efforts and spending to clean up the city infrastructure and the social needs of the population. Following are some of the survey findings:
Drinking water: Marks: 0 /10
You cannot drink tap water directly — it needs to be either boiled or filtered. The water is filthy and not potable.
Dangerous animals and insects: Marks: 3/10
The city is infested with stray dogs and insects that spread diseases and are dangerous.
(Actually there are fewer dogs now than when we arrived. There is a sterilization program in action. As for the mozzies, Yardaf was a victim of Malaria late in 2007)
Infectious Diseases: Marks: 3/10
Infectious diseases are widely spread among citizens and the population of HIV+ citizens is more than that of foreign cities. This makes dwelling in the city for long periods of time dangerous to one's health. It is also harmful to the environment.
(There are more NGO's making inroads to the HIV epidemic with Hollywood and Bollywood celeb's educating the masses. Unfortunately life is cheap and education is limited)
Hospital services: Marks: 5/10
Hospital services are satisfactory, but most hospitals are located in the island city while the suburbs lack specialised facilities.
(Hospitals are a sight, straight out of the 1950's with some select modern equipment. Bombay Hospital is a large building surrounding a courtyard, trouble is the courtyard is buried beneath building material and waste thrown out of the windows and not removed....)

Waste removal: Marks: 4/10
The garbage collection system is ineffective, and garbage piles are a frequent sight on city roads. However, South Mumbai is comparatively cleaner.
(I would have marked them at 2/10 for this one... check out the pic and some may remember the image of the rubbish washed onto the shore last monsoon..)

Sewerage system; Marks: 3/10
Fifty per cent of city's waste is dumped into the sea without undergoing any sort of treatment. This poses an environmental hazard.
(For those who have visited, you've seen and smelt it... It's not pretty but 15-18 million people living in such a small space it's gotta go somewhere...there's currently limited ways to pipe it and the big question is pipe it to where! The land is so expensive here... although the BMC promises to have NO human poo to the ocean by 2011)