According to a parliamentary panel, Delhi may soon face a waste disposal crisis as daily generation of garbage may jump to 19,100 tonnes, or 4,775 truckloads, by 2024 - up from the current 9,200 tonnes or 2,300 truckloads. This comes even as the government has failed to find new landfill sites despite repeated interventions by the courts.

Indicting the government, the standing committee on urban development said that three of the four landfills in the city have become ‘stinking mountains’, far exceeding their closure deadlines. According to officials, residents are bitterly opposed to landfills coming up in their neighbourhoods, since existing ones aren’t maintained scientifically, turning them into massive polluting heaps.

Pointing out that only 10 of 44 waste management projects have been completed, the committee asked the urban development ministry to sanction more projects. Yogendra Mann, spokesperson for the East and North municipal corporations, however, shifted blame saying, “We have suggested possible sites to the DDA since only they can provide land, but no allotment has been made.”

Almost 85 percent of the city doesn’t have a formal door-to-door trash-pickup system, leading to 2,500-odd unhealthy dhalaos (waste dumping enclosures) serving as secondary collection centres. Many dhalaos overflow and spill garbage on the streets. The problem is likely to worsen with the city’s population ballooning to 24.5 million by 2024.

The ministry, in its reply to the committee that was rejected, had said that local municipal authorities are responsible for collection and disposal of waste. It also claimed to have forwarded a note to the Delhi government to promote decentralised compost plants to take the pressure off of landfills.

Source: TNN