Who will clean Jalandhar? 500 MT waste generated daily is untreated
The Waraiana dumping site, which had 700 metric tonnes (MT) of garbage, nearly six years ago, has a whopping 10 lakh MT tonnes of accumulated waste today.
With the daily generation of over 500 tonnes of waste in the city, hundreds of dumping sites across the industrial town are reeling under insanitary conditions, and the areas around them are turning into complete wastelands. Garbage dumps at Model Town, Guru Nanakpura, Adarsh Nagar, Basti Bawa Khel, Vikaspuri (where residents held protest today) and the ones near Nakodar Chowk, PPR Mall, and several other areas have made it hard for residents to step outdoors. The unbearable stench and garbage heaps, along with stray dogs roaming on roads, have made the lives of locals miserable.
Sandeep Singh, a local having an agricultural land right next to the Waraina dumpsite in Jalandhar, witnessed dead dogs, birds near his land around six months ago. He said the water residue from the dump had seeped out and overflown on the land. Today, the area around his land is under six inches of water due to the seepage from the Wariana dump, which is the designated landfill site for all solid wastes of the city.
On coming in contact with dirty water, birds died. Similarly, the at Kewal Vihar, bordering the site, have also withered due to the contaminated water. On August 27, the National Green Tribunal had ordered the Jalandhar Municipal Corporation to file a response, disclosing the time-bound action plan in order to achieve the target of zero gap in treating the daily generated waste and also remediating the legacy waste as well as addressing the Model Town dump problem within four weeks. The next date of hearing on the issue is December 6. So far, the problem remains unresolved.
Majority of the waste is not even been segregated. However, the irony is that Punjab Grow More Fertilisers (PGMF) Private Limited, a firm having a 30-year lease to run a garbage conversion plant for the conversion of the dump’s wet waste into compost, is itself surrounded with garbage heaps.
Municipal corproation officials claimed that the PGMF plant would be replaced with a bio-mining project. Officials also admit that it would not be operational for another two years. Till then, more waste would pile up, endangering the health of residents and and ecosystems of the district.
A councillor said the waste treatment work had begun at the Pholriwal sewage treatment plant, but it was later discontinued. MC Additional Commissioner, in his formal response during the NGT hearing, said, “Of the 500 tonnes of waste being generated daily, 120 tonnes is treated while 380 tonnes is added to the legacy waste.”
He said composting pits were operational at five locations including — Nangal Shama, Rama Mandi, Basti Sheikh and Pholariwal. However, upon being questioned on none of these being operational, the MC Commissioner said, “All our sites are operational. There may be challenges or issues for one or two days, or some gaps which require additional infrastructure upgrades. The older firm’s (PGMF's) tender was given in 2001. We are closing and terminating that contract. That land will get vacated once bio-mining begins.
The government has failed to manage the garbage-related issues in the city. The waste is piling up and despite the problem being taken up with the government repeatedly, there has been no change on the ground. The waste is not being segregated, and if the MC doesn’t have a plan to segregate it, then who will do it? The smart city project has been a total waste of the taxpayers’ money
Charanjit Singh Channi, Jalandhar MP
Around 50-60% of waste can be processed. We are processing this waste through windrow composting at the Pholariwal site. Nearly 60 tonnes of waste will be processed through pit management and 180-100 tonnes through windrow composting. We have approved Rs 6 crore funds to develop transfer stations. We have also started a Rs 32 crore bio-mining project at the site.
Gautam Jain, Jalandhar MC Commissioner
The MC is violating the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, by following 50-year-old obsolete approaches to waste management. Garbage residue at majority dump sites, primarily at Wariana, is wreaking the local ecosystem and contaminating the groundwater. The water in these areas has also never been formally tested by MC. Segregation is the key.
Tejaswi Minhas, resident and activist
The Wariana dump’s dirty water is hazardous to human and animal health and poisons everything around it. I've written to everyone, including the Chief Minister, but no one answers.
Sandeep Singh, land owner
I ran the waste composting and conversion plant till 2016-17. After that, my plant was surrounded with garbage. The MC doesn't segregate waste, which is why the plant is currently non-functional.
Dheeraj Ghai, MD, PGMF
