At half-time, less than 20 pc of legacy waste at Delhi's landfill sites processed: Data

Less than a fifth of the legacy waste at the three landfill sites -- Ghazipur, Okhla, and Bhalswa -- in Delhi has been processed since the project to flatten the mountains of garbage started in October 2019, while the deadline is just two and a half years away, government data showed.

According to the data gathered from several reports of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), a total of 21 lakh tonnes of legacy waste is being bio-mined at the three landfill sites per year (since October 2019).

Ironically, around 20 lakh tonnes of fresh municipal solid waste found its way to the dump sites every year during this period.

The National Green Tribunal had in July 2019 directed the erstwhile municipal corporations to bromine the legacy waste using trommels instead of capping the dump sites.

According to an action plan submitted to the green court by the three municipal corporations, the Ghazipur landfill site, the largest among the three dump sites, stores 140 lakh tonnes of legacy waste. Okhla has 60 lakh tonnes of old waste and Bhalswa 80 lakh tonnes.

Ghazipur, Okhla, and Bhalswa landfill sites are spread over 70 acres, 46 acres, and 70 acres, respectively.

While the legacy waste at the Okhla landfill has to be processed by December 2023, the deadline for Ghazipur and Bhalswa dumpsites is December 2024.

According to the latest DPCC report, only 52.5 lakh tonnes of legacy waste has been processed so far at the three sites.

The Ghazipur landfill site has seen the slowest progress. Only 11 lakh tonnes (7.86 percent) of the legacy waste has been processed by May-end at the dump site in east Delhi.

It processed 3 lakh tonnes of the old waste in the first year of the project (from October 2019 to October 2020), 4.81 lakh tonnes in the second year (from October 2020 to October 2021), and around 3.2 lakh tonnes in the third year so far.

The data showed the erstwhile East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) bio-mined 4.4 lakh tonnes of waste per year on an average. At this pace, it will take the authorities around 29 more years to process the entire legacy waste there.

At the Okhla dumpsite, 16.5 lakh tonnes of the 60 lakh tonnes of waste have been processed. The erstwhile SDMC bio-mined around 1.6 lakh tonnes of waste in the first year, 5.84 lakh tonnes in the second year, and 8.66 lakh tonnes in the third year so far.

On average, 6.6 lakh tonnes of legacy waste is being processed at the Okhla landfill, which means another 6.5 years are needed to deal with the old waste.

The erstwhile North MCD has bio-mined 25 lakh tonnes (31.25 percent) of legacy waste since the project started -- 10 lakh tonnes every year on an average. At this rate, it will take the authorities another 5.5 years to complete the work.

The data showed that 12, 8, and 15 trommel machines, respectively, were operational at Ghazipur, Okhla, and Bhalswa landfill sites in October 2019. While the number of machines reduced to eight at Ghazipur, it jumped to 26 at Okhla and 44 at Bhalswa during this period.

The increase in the number of machines at Okhla and Bhalswa explains the increase in the rate of processing there.

Apart from the legacy waste, the three dumpsites receive a lot of fresh waste every day.

According to the DPCC report, Delhi generates around 11,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste per day. Of this, around 5,000 tonnes are processed and the rest (6,000 tonnes per day or 21.6 lakh tonnes per year) ends up in landfill sites.

According to officials, the biomining of legacy waste is a continuous process that only stops if there is heavy rainfall or a massive fire at the landfill sites.

An MCD official said they are hopeful of achieving the target by December 2024 and a proposal to increase the number of trommel machines has been prepared.

New processing facilities are coming up to deal with fresh waste, he added.

The capital is expected to get another 2000-TPD (tonnes per day) WTE (waste-to-energy) plant at Tehkhand in south Delhi by September this year and a 2,500-TPD integrated Municipal Waste Processing Facility at Ranikhera in the northwest part of the city by August 2024.

A 300-TPD bio-CNG plant and a 100-TPD compressed biogas plant will come up at Okhla by April next year.

Altogether, the waste disposal and processing capacity in Delhi is projected to increase by 4,952 TPD by April 2024.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)