Biomining of legacy waste, waste-to-energy plants among steps MCD taking to flatten landfills

New Delhi: MCD has listed steps such as biomining of legacy waste and setting up of waste-to-energy plants being taken to flatten and shut garbage dumping sites in its status report on landfills which is likely to be submitted to the Lieutenant Governor’s Office by the evening, civic officials said on Friday. Around 50 officials have been entrusted with the task of reducing the height of landfill sites and monthly deadlines have also been set up, they said. Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena had on Sunday visited the Ghazipur landfill site and asked officials of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to submit a status report on their plan to raze these dumping sites. “We have submitted the status report to the Commissioner regarding our plan of action to flatten and shut these landfills. It will be sent to the LG’s Office by today (Friday) evening after Commissioner’s approval. We will follow whatever directions come from the LG’s Office,” an MCD official said. The national capital has three landfill sites – Ghazipur, Bhalaswa and Okhla – that have turned into huge garbage mountains. According to civic officials, the city cumulatively generates around 11,400 metric tons of garbage out of which nearly 6,200 metric tons is dumped at these three landfills. The remaining 5,200 metric ton garbage is processed locally with the help of compactors and Waste-To-Energy (WTE) plants. The official said that in the status report it has been mentioned that the civic body has deployed 45-50 officials including Junior Engineers, Assistant Engineers and Executive Engineers for processing of legacy waste lying at the three landfill sites. “We have deployed trommel machines at the three landfill sites for biomining of legacy waste. WTE plants are also being set up to enhance the capacity of waste processing. Waste segregation and processing at the source is also being encouraged. All these efforts have been included in the status report,” the official said. The civic officials said the deadline to flatten the Ghazipur landfill is December 2024 while efforts are on to raze the Bhalaswa dumping site by July next year. The Okhla landfill is likely to be flattened by December 2023, they said. “We have also set up monthly targets for biomining of the legacy waste and its monitoring. We have also mentioned the requirement of funds in the status report,” the official said. According to the civic officials, cumulatively nearly 250 lakh tonnes of legacy waste is lying at the three landfill sites which needs to be processed. Nearly 50 to 60 per cent of the total legacy waste is inert material which is sent to five sites including NTPC Badarpur, NHAI’s Jaitpur-Faridabad road and Urban Extension Road projects. The issue of garbage mounds and waste processing also surfaced in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech on the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 in October and had said that “mountain of garbage” in the city should be removed. He was referring to the Ghazipur landfill site that has grown into a mountain and was touted as tallest garbage mound in 2019. In 2019, the height of the Ghazipur landfill was 65 metres which was only eight metres less than the height of Qutub Minar. In 2017, a portion of Ghazipur landfill had fallen on an adjacent road in which two people were killed. Frequent incidents of fire at the landfills located at the borders of the capital have also left the people living in the vicinity of the garbage mountains gasping for breath. Read all the Latest News , Trending News ,  Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.