E-Paper
Removal of waste from Chandigarh’s Dadumajra landfill: December deadline at risk as daily dumping surges
Chandigarh MC officials attribute the increase in mixed waste dumping to the absence of a regular municipal commissioner, which has led to a lackadaisical approach among sanitation workers in segregating garbage at Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs)
The Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) is likely to miss its December 2024 target for clearing the Dadumajra landfill, as notified to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), as daily dumping of unprocessed waste has surged significantly over the past month.
Currently, MC collects around 500 tonnes of waste per day (TPD), with approximately 300 TPD classified as wet waste and 200 TPD as dry waste. Despite having wet and dry waste processing plants, MC can process only 430 TPD daily, leaving a gap of nearly 70 TPD of mixed waste that is being dumped at the landfill without processing.
But data shows that in August, waste collectors delivered around 187 TPD of wet waste and 98 TPD of dry waste to processing plants. This dropped further to 143 TPD of wet waste and 86 TPD of dry waste in September, indicating a large gap between collection and processing, leading to mixed waste being sent directly to the landfill.
MC officials attribute the increase in mixed waste dumping to the absence of a regular municipal commissioner, which has led to a lackadaisical approach among sanitation workers in segregating garbage at Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs).
“Instead of penalising residents for not segregating waste, collectors are dumping unsegregated waste at the site. Also, there’s laxity in segregation at the MRFs,” the officials noted.
Flagging the issue, MC’s solid waste management officer has written a letter to the medical officer health (MOH), stating, “Examination of data by MC in May this year had revealed that the quantum of mixed waste being generated in the city had steadily reduced over a period of time to an average of 70 TPD. Accordingly, machinery to segregate the mixed waste is being procured and shall be installed by November 30 this year, with the capacity of segregating 100 TPD of waste daily. However, it has been noticed that the quantum of mixed waste is increasing at an alarming rate and correspondingly the quantum of wet and dry waste being supplied to the two waste processing plants is falling in entire September.”
The officer added that though the bioremediation of the legacy waste at the initial site of 7.67 lakh MT was near completion, processing of the second site cannot be started till the dumping of fresh waste was completely stopped.
“The next hearing of the National Green Tribunal is scheduled on December 12, 2024, and the timelines for bioremediation submitted in the affidavit of the NGT cannot be met, under the present circumstances,” the officer highlighted.
Congress councillor Gurpreet Singh Gabi said the alarming figures were an example of sheer negligence on the part of lower-level officials. “The laxity is witnessed when top posts in the department remain vacant. New medical officer health joined this month, whereas chief engineer is also being relieved. Above all, the MC is running without a commissioner. Responsibility should be fixed on the officers in charge,” he said.
BJP councillor Saurabh Joshi said, “The solid waste management in-charge and MOH wing should be held accountable for the lapse. There are gaps in the working and setting up of garbage management plant, and a detailed inquiry by the central agencies should be done to look into the working of solid waste management plants in the city.”
The waste management journey of Chandigarh has been checkered, with two legacy waste mountains of 5 LMT and 8 LMT rising in Dadumajra in the past decades as a result of inadequate waste processing facilities. The first mountain of 5 LMT waste was processed by December 2022.
Meanwhile, bioremediation of the second mountain of 8 LMT is presently being done by MC under the Smart City Mission. Of the 8 LMT, 7.20 LMT has been bio-mined and MC had set a deadline of December for clearing the entire land. This was after missing the previous deadlines of February and April.
