People living in Southeast Delhi are agitated by the working of the waste to energy plant in Okhla as according to them it causes pollution during the mass burning process of garbage to produce power. On the other hand, officials at the Delhi Government said the main purpose to install the plant is to reduce load of garbage whereas power from the plant is an added benefit.
A few days ago, residents of Sukhdev Vihar filed a petition in the NGT to close waste to energy plant. Residents in their petition said the functioning of the plant is polluting the surrounding areas of their colonies due to the use of mass-burning technology.
Responding to Okhla residents’ complaints, a senior official of Delhi Government said the functioning of garbage processing plant is a necessity. “Both Gazipur plant and Okhla plants process 7,000 metric ton of garbage while Okhla waste to energy plant alone is responsible to process one third of Delhi garbage,” said official.
Responding further about environment conditions surrounding the plant, the official clarified that the emission from the processing of garbage is safe for environment as garbage emission is further processed through chemicals. Also, some environment scientists have backed the officials’ claim and said waste to energy plants are good option.
“It is better to process the garbage after the segregation of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW). The garbage processing inside the plants is good rather to burn garbage in open which is responsible for increasing the mass concentration of pollutants in city air,” said an ecologist.
“If garbage is processed timely in these plants then it can save the land fill sites and with timely usage of collective garbage, can reduce the chances of ground water contamination,” ecologist further added.