The four major and overburdened sanitary landfill (SlF) sites situated in the national Capital may invite another tragedy. Ghazipur, Okhla, Bhalaswa and Narela landfill sites have turned into huge mountains of garbage and have exceeded their life span but the officials of Municipal Corporation are passing the buck on the Delhi Government and the Delhi Development Authority for not allotting sites for the same purpose, instead of doing something concrete.
It is a disaster that is staring at Delhi and it may claim more lives as the Capital's waste dumping grounds are continuing to push its limits. "Delhi produces 10,000 tonnes of garbage daily but limited landfill sites to dump it has already made matter worse. It is a wake up call as many incidents may be possible in coming days," a municipal corporation official said.
"The way out could be to find alternative sites to dump the city's daily garbage but the political inability may play as a hindrance, further escalating the problem. The solution to this problem is to process the waste efficiently so that 75 per cent of garbage can be converted into energy or compost or any other useful byproduct," he added.
A senior East Delhi Municipal Corporation official said that the committee formed by the Delhi High Court recommended 31 landfill sites. "But we are still waiting for any alternative. The landfill sites are already overflowing and have reached saturation point and hence further tragedy cannot be ruled out," he said.
Municipal Corporations in Delhi continue to dump at these three saturated sites ignoring a Delhi Pollution Control Committee ban imposed five years ago. The sites' peripheries are getting illegally enlarged, posing serious health hazards for residents in the vicinity.
There is a shortage of landfill sites in all the three municipalities due to which the disposal of waste is becoming a challenge for the authorities. After the High Court's order to look for additional landfill sites, the MCD has been unable to find it.