Kalyan-Dombivli civic body takes leaf out of Karjat dumping ground

To address its dumping ground woes, the Kalyan- Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) officials recently visited a similar project in Karjat, where a dumping ground

To address its dumping ground woes, the Kalyan- Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) officials recently visited a similar project in Karjat, where a dumping ground was turned into a garden.

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The KDMC has now undertaken the work of clearing the debris off the Adharwadi dumping ground and levelling it after which the work of development of the garden will begin.

The project in Karjat was undertaken by KDMC’s deputy municipal commissioner Ramdas Kokare, who was earlier posted there. He had implemented the plastic-free village campaign in Vengurla, Aurangabad, Matheran and Karjat over the years.

Kokare said, “In Karjat, we had turned a dumping ground into a four-acre garden by planting fruits, vegetable and flowers. We do have plans to change the Adharwadi dumping ground into a garden like the one in Karjat. Once the clearing work at the dumping site is completed, we will soon start the work of developing the garden.”

In the Karjat’s model, the waste was segregated in 36 ways that include everyday wet waste, plastic, paper, chicken waste, human hair, coconut shell, leaf and yard waste, diaper, sanitary napkin, egg shell, leftover of animals, waste from mutton and fish market.

The civic body there made by-laws for solid waste management as mandated under Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, for the project of zero waste management and imposed them strictly. There was ban on plastic and also made segregation of waste mandatory. The dump yard was cleared and the compost produced from the processed wet waste, is used to transform it into a garden. The one-of-its-kind park witnesses visitors every year as it also has a butterfly garden. On one side of the garden, waste is processed while the other side has garden.

Since May this year, the KDMC too imposed waste segregation in all the societies. Six societies are also managing their own waste. The wet waste collected is send to the dumping ground for processing, while the dry waste is sold to scrap dealers.

The KDMC ranked 22nd in the Swachch Bharat Survey 2020 compared to 77th last year due to these measures. One of the major reasons for improvement in the rank is due to the imposing of segregation of waste, decreasing the amount of waste dumped at the Adharwadi dumping ground claims the officials of solid waste management department of KDMC.