Indian Express 24.08.2010
MCD sets itself August 31 deadline to remove malba: Will it, won’t it?
Ayesha Arvind Tags : Corporation, wastage treatment Posted: Tue Aug 24 2010, 02:24 hrs
New Delhi: As per the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s own records, courtesy the Commonwealth Games, the Capital is producing at least 4,500 metric tonnes of construction and demolition waste every day.
The MCD has set for itself a August 31 deadline to clear the city of construction malba, which it says is its top priority. It has, however, no documentation or a list of exact spots where malba has been left unattended.
MALBA TREATMENT PLANTS
The MCD had set up what is now called malba treatment plants several years ago — sources say much before the Games infrastructure development rush picked up. Construction of buildings (both residential and commercial) had already increased with the property boom, compelling the civic authority to think in terms of this newer form of waste. It set up two plants in 2007 — the one in Burari was to recycle the malba into useable construction material while the Jehangirpuri-Bawana plant, with the capacity of 500 metric tonnes, was for processing the waste. Two new plant sites have been identified at Ghomanhera and Narela-Bawana Road; work is, however, yet to begin.
THE PLAN
The MCD began a “special cleanliness drive” on July 1 to clear the Capital of construction waste. As part of the plan, MCD has identified 172 ‘local malba dumping sites’ — one site in each municipal ward where residents and contractors can dump all repair and construction waste. Either bins are placed at collection points or waste is loaded in tipper trucks. These sites are usually vacant plots owned by the MCD.
TRACKING THE MALBA
Auto tippers deployed by the MCD collect malba from the local dumping sites and take it to the sanitary landfill sites. The waste is then processed and transported to the Burari plant for recycling. The MCD has tied up with a private firm, IL&FS Waste Management & Urban Services Limited, to recycle the construction waste to produce tiles, kerbstones and pavement blocks. MCD further claims the quality of products that are made using recyclable material have been tested and verified by the CRRI and that they are as good as those that are made using normal construction material.
THE PROBLEM
The plant in Burari has a ‘mobile crushing facility’ to handle just 500 tonnes of waste every day, but the city produces more than 4,000 tonnes daily. The sanitary landfill sites where waste is dumped are already overflowing as a result of which construction waste is left on the streets. “Though our auto tippers collect the construction waste from these sites, the recycling plant has only a limited capacity,” said an MCD official. The MCD further cites the shortage of land for the inability to set up adequate number of plants to deal with the volume of waste created right now.
