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Solid Waste Management

Mohali, P’kula dump garbage in the open, no sites yet

Tuesday, 30 November 2010 11:11 administrator
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Indian Express          30.11.2010

Mohali, P’kula dump garbage in the open, no sites yet

Nitin Jain Tags : environment, garbage, scientific disposal of their respective solid waste, State-level Authority of Environment Impact Assessment Posted: Tue Nov 30 2010, 05:48 hrs

Chandigarh:  Chandigarh's satellite cities Mohali and Panchkula are dumping garbage in the open without having proper sites for the scientific disposal of their respective solid waste. It has been four decades that both the poor cousins of City Beautiful came into existence before they were upgraded to district headquarters in 2006 and 1995, respectively.

While Mohali has identified three more sites for setting up of common municipal solid waste management facility, Panchkula has recently got a final nod from the Union Environment Ministry for establishing similar facility in Jhuriwala village, close to Sector 25 in Panchkula.

Even as Mohali’s proposed sites in Samgauli (50 acres), Nimbuan (70 acres) (both near Dera Bassi) and Khairpur (150 acres) in Majri block are still awaiting initial go ahead from the Environment Ministry, Panchkula will take almost two years to set up the facility at Jhuriwala.

Till then, Mohali is dumping its almost 100 tonnes of untreated solid waste generated daily from its 2.5 lakh population in the densely inhabited Industrial Focal Point, Phase VIII-B, which houses MNCs like Quark and Dell besides other major industries and residential area while the similar amount of garbage of Panchkula is being dumped in Sector 23, much to the inconvenience of those living in Sector 23-28.

While the administrators cite non-availability of adequate sites for shifting the illegal dumping grounds, where the garbage is not even treated scientifically, the Pollution Control Boards of Punjab and Haryana also express their helplessness in initiating any action on the widespread pollution on the lame excuse that, “how can they stop dumping of garbage when there are no adequate sites available”. 

As a short-term arrangement, Mohali and Panchkula Deputy Commissioners had also requested Chandigarh Administration to allow dumping of their solid waste at Chandigarh’s waste processing and disposal facilities unit but Chandigarh Municipal Corporation had categorically refused to accept the offer.

In Mohali, another 58.79 acres site acquired for the facility at Swara-Rasanheri-Jhanjeri villages was recently rejected by the State Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC) of the Union Ministry of Environment.

Though the SEAC’s site rejection report is yet to be considered by the Union Environment Ministry’s statutory body State-level Authority of Environment Impact Assessment (SAEIA), which is presently defunct in the absence of its chairman and member, a state-level committee, headed by Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) Chief Administrator (CA) Vivek Pratap Singh, with Director, Local Government, SK Sharma as convener, formed by Chief Secretary SC Agrawal on the directions of Punjab and Haryana High Court, has identified three alternate sites and sent them for approval from Environment Ministry before moving ahead for conducting their Environment Impact Assessment studies to be followed by acquisition of land.

High Court had ordered to select a new alternate site to free Mohali’s industrial hub from garbage dump, which Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had already ordered to shift till June 2009 but to no avail as yet.

In Panchkula, the illegal garbage dumping at 10 acres vacant site in Sector 23 is continuing for the past over five years. The foul smell and smoke of garbage burning from the dumping ground has made hell the life of Sector 23-28 residents, forcing them to form a Joint Action Committee (JAC) for pressing the administration to shift the dumping ground. It was after the area residents, led by JAC president SS Gill, recently took to the streets that the district administration asked the civic body and Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) to not let dumping of garbage in open but to dig pits and level them after dumping garbage. However, this also failed to make any difference. 

Admitting that both HUDA and MC had so far failed to find a permanent solution to the grave problem of the public, former Panchkula MC president Ravinder Rawal suggested that till an alternate site is found, the dumping ground should be shifted to Jhuriwala site with immediate effect to free the inhabited area from pollution.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 30 November 2010 11:16
 

BBMP tech claim all rubbish, Bengaluru turns dumpyard

Tuesday, 30 November 2010 05:37 administrator
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The Deccan Chronicle  30.11.2010

BBMP tech claim all rubbish, Bengaluru turns dumpyard

Nov. 29: Bengaluru’s civic body, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has been chanting the technology mantra of late to keep the city clean, but the results are hardly visible. While it boasts of having fitted its garbage trucks with a Geographical Positioning System (GPS) to prevent indiscriminate dumping of rubbish on the outskirts the city, the effort doesn’t seem to have paid off.

Although the system is supposed to keep track of the trucks while on the move and also guage the speed at which they are travelling, it is not always able to, leaving people staring at heaps of garbage at several spots on the city’s outskirts. The poor use of GPS has made a mockery of BBMP’s tall claims that trucks that collect the rubbish from the city will no longer be able to get away with dumping garbage anywhere they please.

The fact that they are still able to escape BBMP’s eagle eye, indicates that some garbage contractors are still continuing to get the better of it. It is alleged the GPS system is often tampered with and its battery or wires removed by the truck drivers to escape being monitored by the control room.

A solid waste management expert from Kumara Park, N.S. Ramakanth has no doubt that the system is not working as well as it should be, whatever the reasons may be. “The GPS has failed miserably. When I went to see for myself how it worked for trucks picking up garbage from Kumara Park, I saw the BBMP was not able to really keep track of them,” he says.

Where Geographical Positioning System appears to be helping BBMP is in cutting down the fee it had to pay the contractors for the extra distance they claimed their trucks had covered. BBMP officers say the system has stopped contractors from overcharging it and has helped BBMP save upto Rs 5 lakh a month.

Aware of the shortfalls, the civic agency is now planning to go in for a more sophisticated tracking system, “geo fencing” which will be able to pinpoint the exact location of the garbage trucks using latitude and longtitude values.
Additionally dumping yards will in future have a weigh bridge to estimate the quantum of garbage received to prevent the contractors from trying to make the BBMP believe otherwise.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 30 November 2010 05:39
 

Govt identifies new site for waste management project

Monday, 29 November 2010 10:23 administrator
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Indian Express           29.11.2010

Govt identifies new site for waste management project

Lalmani Verma Tags : environment, solid waste management project in Eintgaon Posted: Mon Nov 29 2010, 06:23 hrs

 Lucknow:  After the state dropped its plan to set up the solid waste management project in Eintgaon and before that in Dashehari village, it has identified a site in Siviri area on Mohan Road for the project.

The officials in the Construction and Design Services, UP Jal Nigam, the nodal agency for the project, said a 19-hectare barren land, 5 km from Eintgaon, has been selected for the project and a proposal for environment clearance of this site has been sent to the Environment Directorate of UP.

“The Environment Impact Assessment Committee (EIAC) will go through the proposal and the Jal Nigam will conduct the study on the parameters recommended by the committee, said Yashpal Singh, Environment Director and Secretary, EIAC.

An official in Jal Nigam said the earlier site, a 35-acre land belonging to the Bhumi Sudhar Nigam of the Agriculture department in Eintgaon, was rejected as UPBSN scientists were conducting a study of that land. “If the land was taken for the solid waste management project, it would have affected the study,” he said.

The 19-hectare land identified recently at Sivri too belongs to the UPBSN but no study is going on here. “As the land belongs to the Agriculture department and needs to be transferred to the Urban Development department for the project, it will require Cabinet approval,” said Alok Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Urban Development.

“The land is insufficient for the project. But more land will be provided by Bhumi Sudhar Nigam near Siviri later. Before that, civil work will be started at the site once it is handed over to the private operator selected for the plant,” said a Jal Nigam official. 

Initially the project was proposed to come up on 88-acre land in Dashehari village on Hardoi Road. But it involved cutting of 2,036 trees and faced opposition. Besides, it was feared that the site will affect the orchards in the area which also includes the oldest known mother-tree of Dashehari. The project has been awarded to Jyoti Enviro-Tech Private Limited for door-to-door collection of solid waste, its processing and disposal at landfill site. Around 1,300 tonne solid waste is generated daily in Lucknow.

Under the JNNURM, Rs 42.92 crore was sanctioned for the project in May 2007. The state government has made a commitment to the Centre to complete the project by March 2011. The Jyoti Enviro-Tech Private Limited has already started door-to-door collection of solid waste in some wards but it is waiting for selection of the land site for setting up the processing plant.

 
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