Delhi is likely to witness more crises due to the shortage of alternative space for dumping garbage. The crises seem to be unending as the authorities responsible for finding a solution are passing the buck to one another. All the three landfill sites — Bhalswa, Okhla and Ghazipur — in the Capital have reached their saturation point (50 metres, while 20 metres was allowed) almost ten years ago. The officials ignored hazards and kept a blind eye, resulting in the tragedy at Ghazipur landfill site.
A senior official of the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) said the issue of the landfill site is not that easy to fix and it will take years to solve this perennial problem. Experts too have red-flagged this issue and have warned that more such tragedies are waiting to happen if measures are not taken urgently.
An official of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) said the two sites were already proposed to the EDMC but one at Yamuna bank is not getting clearance from the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and the second site proposed in Bawana is facing the wrath of the locals. Before allotting any site by the DDA to the civic bodies, a clearance from the NGT is mandatory, the official added.
Alarmed over the prevailing situation, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has decided to float tenders this week itself for the construction of new landfill site. Officials of the civic body have been instructed to approach the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) for necessary environmental clearance.
The Okhla sanitary landfill site is under tremendous pressure as no alternative is available as of now. Nearly 2,700 metric tonnes (MT) garbage is still dumped every day there even after the SDMC had already announced to shut down the site that exhausted its life span in 2010 “The corporation will now dump the garbage at the site at Tehkhand, near Okhla,” he said.
“Delhi produces over 8,500 metric tonnes daily (MTD) of solid waste, but all three of its dumping grounds, with a collective capacity of 4,600 MTD are operating beyond their saturation point,” the official said.
In the wake of Friday’s accident, lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal had imposed a ban on the dumping of garbage at the Ghazipur landfill site. The waste was to be diverted to a temporary site in Ranikhera near the Delhi- Haryana border. However, the decision was not implemented as angry protesters from Ranikhera village forced the authority to take the decision back, leaving the corporation with no option except dumping it to banned Ghazipur site.
Meanwhile, EDMC Mayor Neema Bhagat said that the lG has been informed about garbage being dump temporary at the banned Ghazipur site. She further said that 500 MT of garbage is being sent to Okhla waste to energy plant and the remaining is being dump at Ghazipur. “The arrangement will be continue until we get new site,” she said.
Further, the EDMC’s proposal to set up an alternative landfill site in Ghonda Gujran in east Delhi was on Monday also rejected by a panel constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on the grounds of the site being situated in an environmentally-sensitive zone near the Yamuna River, an EDMC official said.
A senior Corporation official said that the problem seems to be never ending as the involvement of various authorities and difficulties in getting approval from NGT has made it difficult to get a solution. “The problem has been continuing for years because lack of political will to get a solution,” he said.
Ghazipur landfill, which was commissioned in 1984, had reached to saturation point in 2002 and since then agency had been “looking for an alternative site for a long time.
The EDMC in last November signed MoU with NHAI to extract the garbage and use it for construction of an 82 km stretch between Delhi and Meerut on the National Highway-24. “The tender has been issued and the work will be started soon. The project help will help in remedying polluted environment surrounding the existing landfill. Further75 per cent of this garbage will be used in road construction and the immediate problem will be solved,” the official said.