After SC's rebuke, LG office says work underway to address garbage issue

Days after the Supreme Court castigated Lt Governor Anil Baijal for doing nothing to get the "mountains of garbage" cleared, his office today said that work is already underway to address these problems in a time bound manner and in a "comprehensive and sustainable way".

A statement issued by LG's office stated that the problem of garbage mounds is a "legacy problem of six decades" and multiple issues have made it a "challenging task".

It said Baijal had been regularly reviewing and monitoring garbage disposal plans and actions of MCDs for management of legacy mounds and processing of daily waste generated their "site specific challenges" and imminent requirement of remediation of these huge mounds.

"As a result of intensive and continuous monitoring by the lieutenant governor through site visits and regular meetings and the directions and guidance given, work is already underway to address these problems in a time bound manner in a comprehensive and sustainable way," the statement stated.

Last week, the apex court had castigated Baijal for adopting a "superman" attitude but doing nothing to get the "mountains of garbage" of the city cleared, with one of the dumping sites even reaching a height close to that of the Qutub Minar.

Terming the situation in Delhi as "absolutely bizarre", the top court had referred to the "mountains of garbage" at three landfill sites in Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhalswa, and said there was a 65-metre mound at Ghazipur which was "only eight metre less than the historic Qutub Minar".

The L-G office said that immediately after assuming office, Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal visited all the three landfill sites and Construction and Demolition Waste Plants (C&D Waste) at Burari and Shastri Park.

According to the statement, all projects at landfill sites that are underway will be completed by August 2020 and after completion of these three projects, it is expected that no untreated garbage will be dumped at the landfill sites.

About Okhla Landfill site, the LG office said that with accumulated garbage of 60 lakh MT the landfill site is spread over 32 acres. The site which is in operation since 1996 was saturated in 2008.

"Under guidance of project team from IIT Delhi, SDMC (South MCD) has started remediation process and as on date about 30-40 per cent of the slope stabilization has been achieved. The balance slope profiling and engineered closure will be completed by July 2019," it stated.

It also stated that Ghazipur landfill site is the oldest with accumulated garbage of over 140 lakh MT and spread over 70 acres of area, adding that suitable land at at Ghonda Gujran and Sonia Vihar has been identified.

The EDMC has roped in GAIL to flare the 34 cubic metre landfill gas. Final closure is expected to take 12 to 18 months, it added.

About Bhalswa landfill site, statement stated that under the guidance of the scientific advisory committee, North MCD has started the process of dousing the internal and external fires along the unstable slopes and embedded deep below.

"As on July 2018, the daily dump of MSW has been reduced from 3100 MT to 2000 MT. The experts have suggested that engineered closure of this site will take approximately 24 months," it also added.