MCD to clear overflowing garbage sites
Unable to get more land to set up landfill sites for the city’s solid waste, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has no other option left but to clear the existing ones to accommodate more garbage.
Unable to get more land to set up landfill sites for the city’s solid waste, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has no other option left but to clear the existing ones to accommodate more garbage.
Senior officials said that part of the garbage will be sent to waste-to-energy sites. Rest will be compressed using compress plants to reduce its size to 1/4th of the original size.
At present, all three landfill sites — Okhla, Ghazipur and Bhalaswa — have reached their saturation points. Delhi produces nearly 9,000 metric tones of garbage every day.
MCD had earlier requested DDA for more land for these sites but protests from locals meant that it could get only four sites at Narela-Bawana. The land at rest of the three locations — Jaitpur, Bakkawala and Ghuman Hera — could not be acquired.
Municipal Commissioner KS Mehra said garbage from the three sites will be segregated and sent to the three energy plants. The energy landfill site at Narela-Bawana became operational earlier this month while the other two located at Ghazipur and Okhla will be made operational soon. All three will convert about 7,000 metric tones of garbage into fuel or electricity daily. Okhla plant, operational by next month, will generate 16.5 MW electricity.
“The soil at the landfill sites will be used for covering up pits. Organic garbage will be used up by energy sites and rest of the garbage consisting of construction material can be recycled,” Mehra said.
March against waste plants
Residents affected by waste-to-energy plants and many waste pickers in Delhi have threatened to march to the United Nations office at Lodi Road next week, demanding an end to “climate subsidies to waste incinerators”. The All India Kabari Mazdoor Mahasangh (AIKMM) has claimed that the plants at Okhla, Ghazipur and Bawana would render almost 2 lakh waste pickers of Delhi jobless. It will lead to toxic emissions, it claimed.