A day after a portion of Ghazipur’s mountainous landfill collapsed killing two persons and injuring five others, lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal on Saturday imposed a ban on dumping of garbage at the site and said it would be cleared within two years. Now, the waste meant for it would be diverted to a temporary site in Ranikhera near the Delhi-Haryana border.
The decisions were taken after the l-G called a high-level meeting with officials of municipal corporations, Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
Earlier, a decision was taken to divert the garbage to Bhalswa landfill (about 50-metre high) site, but as it is already used way beyond its saturation point, a new site was identified, a civic official said.
In a related development, the East MCD has announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh each to the kin of the two persons who died in the garbage mishap.
At present, more than 10,000 tonnes of garbage is generated every day. Of this, East Delhi generates 3,000 tonnes, North produces 3,500 tonnes while South Delhi collects 3,500 tonnes of garbage.
The l-G also directed that traffic be diverted on the road adjoining the landfill for proper vehicular movement. The meeting was attended by Ranbir Singh, Commissioner EDMC; RP Singh, General Manager NHAI; Rajeev Verma, Principal Commissioner (lands) DDA and experts in landfill site management.
Meanwhile, Delhi Police has filed an FIR under Section 304(A) in Diary Entry.
The Ghazipur landfill site, a part of which collapsed on Friday, should have shut down in 2002. Due to shortage of landfill site, the municipal authorities continued to dump garbage at the site.
Of the 20 Sanitary landfill Sites developed since 1975, 15 have been closed and work suspended at two. At present, Delhi has four landfill sites and three of them operate beyond capacity. The sites at Ghazipur and Bhalswa were commissioned in 1984 while Okhla was added in 1996 while Narela Bawana was added in 2010. The Narela-Bawana landfill site spread in 100 acres.
According to MCD officials, the municipal agencies have been repeatedly demanding more land from the DDA to set up landfills and waste-to-energy plants. But, the sites allocated to the municipal corporations two years ago, are still unused. According to MCD officials, the sites provided are either too small to be used as landfill sites or not been demarcated properly by the DDA.
Over 9,500 tonnes per day (TPD) of garbage is generated in the city. About 8,000 TPD of waste is collected and transported to three landfill sites at Bhalswa, Okhla and Ghazipur. Actual waste generation in the city could be much higher, as a bulk of the waste is managed by the informal sector. According to an estimate, there are about 150,000 rag pickers in Delhi. More than 70,000 sanitation workers of the three corporations manage this. Assuming that a ragpicker picks up 50 kg of waste every day, it reduces the load for treatment and disposal by 1,200 to 1,500 tonnes per day, say corporation officials. The three corporations require a minimum of 200 acres each to sustain waste processing for the next 50 years.
According to the Master Plan for Delhi, 2021, these landfill sites had exceeded their capacity way back in 2008. Most of these sites have contaminated the aquifers and groundwater in and around their neighbourhoods. As per the latest draft manual on municipal solid waste management prepared by the Union Ministry of Urban Development, three million tonnes of waste can be accommodated on 40 ha of land (keeping in mind that the life of a landfill is 20 years). Delhi needs 800 ha of land, which would cost Rs 80,000 crore going by the present circle rate!
At the Saturday meeting, expressing his condolences to the families of the two people who lost their lives, Baijal asked all agencies to be fully prepared to deal with such exigencies and to coordinate so that such unfortunate incidents do not recur.
AAP spokesperson Dilip Pandey said the DDA and MCD should work together to finalise a new garbage dumping site in the city at the earliest.