No more waste dumping at Bandhwari landfill from February 1

Over 40 feet high, the Bandhwari dump is one of the largest landfills in north India and towers above the mesquite forests and surrounding Aravalli hills. It is impossible to miss this man-made mountain of garbage, or the foul stench which emanates from it, as one crosses the district border into Faridabad

No more waste would be dumped at the Bandhwari landfill in the Aravallis from February 1 next year, officials said on Wednesday, and the decision, coming as it does on the heels of the civic body order that only segregated waste would be collected from households from November 21, in a sure signal that Gurugram is at long last getting serious about tackling its waste problem.

Residents from nearby areas and environmentalists have time and again alleged that the leachate and garbage from the mega dump have started affecting the ecologically sensitive Aravallis as well as pose health hazards. (HT Archive)

The decision was taken in a meeting chaired by the Haryana State Pollution Control Board chairman P Raghvendra Rao, who is heads a nine-member committee formed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to look into the problems affecting the landfall. Chief secretary Sanjeev Kaushal attended the meeting via video conferencing from Chandigarh, while officials from the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and the district administration were also present.

It was also decided that the legacy waste at the landfill will be processed in a timebound manner.

Over 40 foot high, the Bandhwari dump is one of the largest landfills in north India and towers above the mesquite forests and surrounding Aravalli hills. It is impossible to miss this man-made mountain of garbage, or the foul stench which emanates from it, as one crosses the district border into Faridabad.

Residents from nearby areas and environmentalists have time and again alleged that the leachate and garbage from the mega dump have started affecting the ecologically sensitive Aravallis as well as pose health hazards.

Officials said the MCG has already prepared a plan for stopping the dumping at the oversaturated landfill. They said Rao also directed the Faridabad municipal corporation authorities to prepare a plan for management of their daily solid waste, which is also currently dumped at Bandhwari.

Mukesh Kumar Ahuja, MCG commissioner, said they will create capacity to process 1,200 tonnes of waste which is generated daily in Gurugram. “For that, seven decentralised waste processing units would be established in seven places. Five of them -- in Beri Bagh, Badshahpur, Sector 44, BWG and Darbaripur -- have already started functioning,” he said, adding that the waste-to-energy (WTE) plant at the Bandhwari landfill site would start operations by February 2024

Ahuja said such units have also been installed at Ullawas and South City-2 but these could not start functioning owing to protest by residents. “The seven facilities have a combined capacity to process 1,50 tonnes of waste. Efforts are being made to make people understand that only segregated waste would be brought to these places and would not be stored overnight -- the processing would take place the same day. No waste from any other area would be brought to these places,” he said.

Ahuja said a 50 tonne waste processing unit for material recovery at Carterpuri would start functioning from December 15.

MCG officials said starting November 21, Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) will collect only segregated waste from households across the city.

Residents’ welfare associations (RWAs)s have been told to cooperate and ensure that residents do not mix waste in their dustbins.

The corporation has also issued directions to its sanitation wing and door-to-door waste collection concessionaire Ecogreen to make citizens aware of the change over the next few days and sensitise them on the need to segregate waste at home.

Sanjay Sharma, deputy chief executive officer of Ecogreen Energy, said they have requested thebstate government to look into the issues faced by them at the two material recovery facility sites in South City-2 and Ullawas village.

“We have been assured that the work will be resumed within a week at these sites after discussion with the locals. Another new site at Carterpuri will be identified soon and that will also take on some of the waste burden. We will clean Bandhwari within a fixed time period,” he said.

A statement issued by the district administration said various issues pertaining to waste management in Gurugram and Faridabad, including the clearing of the Bandhwari legacy waste, treatment of leachate, and setting up of the proposed decentralised waste processing systems, among others, were discussed on Wednesday.

Officials said it has been decided that the MCG and regional officers of the HSPCB will strictly monitor the functioning of the disk tube and reverse osmosis (DTRO) and leachate treatment plants at the Bandhwari site.

The committee also decided that legacy leachate at Bandhwari will be transported to both the sewage treatment plants (STPs) where the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) will install the DTROs.

Chief secretary Sanjeev Kaushal suggested that environmentalists should be engaged to monitor the exercise and ensure tankers filled with leachate reach the STPs. Samples of the leachate will be tested before being treated at the STPs and will be dumped thereafter at the DTROs, provided the toxic elements are within the permissible limits.