Delhi, Mumbai lack solid waste treatment techniques: Ficci

Delhi and Mumbai, the highest generators of municipal wastes in the country, lack scientific facilities to treat the waste as they are dumping it in landfills, a Ficci survey said.

Cities like Delhi, Faridabad, Greater Mumbai, Jaipur, Lucknow, Pune and Surat, which are at the higher end of the waste generation spectrum, dispose more than 80 per cent of the waste in landfills.

"In fact, Mumbai sends 100 per cent of its waste to dump-sites while Delhi 94 per cent of its waste," it said.

The survey of 22 cities reveals that 14 of them dump 75 per cent of their solid waste which is as high as 15,785 tonnes per day.

 

It said the absence of designated dump-sites in certain cities results in the waste lying open in the outskirts of the town centres.

Only six cities have sanitary landfills, while 10 cities including Delhi, Mumbai and Kanpur do not have sanitary sites.

"The absence of sanitary landfills in the high waste generating cities like Delhi further reiterates the lack of initiative and the unsatisfactory state of waste disposal in Indian cities," Ficci said.

Estimates suggest that a tonne of waste produces 55 cubic metre of gas and further 12,000 cubic metre of gas produces 1 Mw power.