Over 3,000 tons of untreated solid waste per day in Delhi may lead to a “public health emergency”, the Supreme Court said on Friday while voicing concern over poor implementation of the Solid Waste Management Rules in the national capital.              

The apex court, which slammed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) over the “sorry state of affairs”, observed that the national capital generates over 11,000 tons of solid waste per day, while the daily capacity of processing plants made available by the corporation was only 8,073 tons.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih noted that as per MCD’s affidavit, there is no possibility of creating treatment facilities even till 2027 to deal with 11,000 tons of solid waste generated daily.

Senior advocate Aparajita Singh, assisting the top court as an amicus curiae in the matter related to solid waste management, told the bench that this may lead to public health emergency as there are data, both in Indian and foreign journals, that people are dying because of pollution in the country.

“We are worried about this. In the capital city, this is the state of affairs of the 2016 rules where we are generating untreated solid waste of above 3,000 tons per day, and with every day, it will increase,” the bench said.

“We don’t see light at the end of the tunnel as going by the affidavit (of MCD) and assuming that the timelines mentioned therein are abided by, there is no possibility of creating (additional treatment) facilities in Delhi even till 2027 which will have capacity to deal with 11,000 tons of solid waste every day,” it said.

The bench said no guess work was required to say that generation of solid waste will multiply many times by that time.

“We agree with the amicus curiae that this will lead to public health emergency,” it said, adding, “This is a sorry state of affairs when it comes to implementation of Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, in the capital city”.                  

The bench directed the secretary of the Union environment ministry to convene a meeting of officials of the MCD and the Delhi government for working out an immediate solution to the issue. It asked the secretary to submit a report about immediate measures which can be taken for ensuring that non-compliance with the 2016 rules does not create a serious emergency in Delhi.

It also referred to a separate affidavit filed on behalf of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. The bench noted it has been stated that the MCD has approached the Delhi government to delegate financial power to the corporation to approve the rates and agency contracts beyond Rs 5 crore relating to solid waste management projects.

It directed the Delhi government to immediately consider the July 10 proposal, which is limited to solid waste management projects, and take appropriate decision within three weeks.  The court also dealt with the issue of solid waste management in Gurugram, Faridabad and Greater Noida, and said the situation there was equally worse.

The bench noted that total generation of solid waste in Gurugram was 1,200 tons per day but the daily processing capacity was 254 ton only. In Faridabad, the total generation of solid waste was 1,000 tons daily, while the processing capacity was limited to 400 tons per day.