Fund shortage to delay waste removal at Dadu Majra dump

Shortage of funds is likely to delay the removal of waste from the Dadu Majra dumping ground.

In an affidavit submitted to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in June, the Department of Environment, UT, had stated that bioremediation of the landfill on 8.28 acres was started on August 26, 2022. Of 8 lakh metric tonne (LMT) of waste, 7.67 LMT had been processed and the work will be completed by December 31 this year.

According to officials, the removal of the waste was likely to get delayed in the absence of complete segregation of waste at source and non-procurement of a shredder at the dumping ground.

The Municipal Corporation (MC) collects about 500 tonnes of waste daily, of which about 300 tonnes is wet waste, including horticulture waste, while the remaining is dry waste.

According to the MC, 100% waste is being collected from households in four categories — dry, wet, sanitary and domestic hazardous waste.

Though wet and dry waste processing plants are functional, the MC is able to process only 430 tonnes waste every day and the rest of 70 tonnes is dumped on the landfill. As the manual segregation of the mixed waste is not possible, there is a need to set up a plant to segregate the waste into dry and wet trash, according to officials.

The Finance and Contract Committee has approved funds for the installation of a shredder at the solid waste processing plant in Dadu Majra to process dry waste, which is dumped at the landfill without processing every day.

Mayor Kuldeep Kumar said owing to a shortage of funds, the MC was unable to procure a machine to segregate the waste. He said nearly 90 per cent of the waste dump, for which a tender was allotted, had been cleared. Another waste dump was yet to be cleared, he added.

The MC has approved a project to set up a new integrated waste management plant at Dadu Majra. The new waste management plant, with a capacity of 600 tonnes per day, is proposed to have three facilities – one each for dry, wet and horticulture waste. Spread over 20 acres, it will be set up on a part of the landfill after clearing the area of trash. As per the proposal, the project will be allotted for a total of 17 years — two years for construction and 15 years for operation and maintenance.

70 tonnes of waste dumped every day

Of about 500 tonnes of waste collected in the city every day, the MC is able to process only 430 tonnes of trash and the rest of 70 tonnes is dumped on the Dadu Majra landfill.

Admn should Release funds: Tewari

The UT Administration should honour its commitment to removing waste from the dump by December this year. The Administration should give funds to the MC so that it can speed up the process of waste removal. — Manish Tewari, Chandigarh MP