Lack of new sites in the city; the state shooting down its decision to lease out space at landfills in Deonar, Mulund and Kanjurmarg to private parties at a concessional rate for processing waste; a proposed 126-hectare dumping ground plot in Taloja, which seems like a distant dream.
Lack of new sites in the city; the state shooting down its decision to lease out space at landfills in Deonar, Mulund and Kanjurmarg to private parties at a concessional rate for processing waste; a proposed 126-hectare dumping ground plot in Taloja, which seems like a distant dream.
As the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation faces too many stumbling blocks to managing city's waste – 10,000 metric tonnes a day, experts say it is high time the civic administration adopted environmentally correct practices to overcome the challenge. They say the focus must shift from dumping to segregation at source.
With still some time to go for the 141-Ha Kanjurmarg facility to be operational, mountains of untreated solid waste is piling up at the other two dump sites, turning them into potential, ecological time bombs.
"A landfill at Taloja is logistically not feasible. There are high chances that the locals will oppose the move," said waste management expert Dr Amiya Kumar Sahu, stressing the need for spending time and resources on innovative solutions.
"If the BMC adopts the concept of decentralised waste management seriously, dump yards may not be needed,"said Dr Sahu, who is the president at National Solid Waste Association of India.
According to environmentalist Rishi Aggarwal, waste segregation must improve at the first level - housing societies. "Just sending notices to errant societies won't work. The BMC should rope in people from TISS and other such organisations to raise awareness as well as for better enforcement."
Aggarwal said the volunteers should be asked to visit housing colonies and slum settlements to let people know why segregation of trash is important. "They should not be sent there as mere information gatherers. They should be allowed to crack the whip on societies that fail to segregate waste after a given time." The expert has also urged the BMC to earmark separate areas for sorting and processing rubbish in its next development plan for the city.
On its part, civic officials said, the BMC is planning to start garbage-processing units, with a capacity of 5 metric tonnes, at ward level. Authorities said this would help bring down the amount of refuse going to the dumping grounds by about 2,500 MT. Also in the card is setting up composting system at gardens in each ward. But the plans are still in a preliminary stage.
Dr Sahu says like Mumbai, waste disposal in most cities is not regularised due to lack of coordination between state governments and local municipal bodies, often stemming from political reasons such as different parties ruling each of the entities.
"There should be a uniform national bill on waste management. All municipal bodies in all states should comply with it," Sahu said, adding that his organisation was working on it.
Till such time the state government and the BMC make some ecological atonement, the toxic towers at Deonar and Mulund landfills will only grow. For the time being, Dr Sahu offers a solution – burn them down. "Given that there is no alternate space available, mixed waste can be incinerated and steam can be produced in the process. It can then be used to generate power using steam turbines."
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