Work underway to address waste issues: L-G office

New Delhi: Lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal on Monday said that the three municipal corporations in the national capital are aggressively taking steps to manage Delhi’s three sanitary landfill sites at Okhla, Ghazipur and Bhalswa using modern technologies.

The lieutenant-governor (L-G) said the projects at these sites will be completed by 2020, after which no untreated garbage will be dumped at these sites. The L-G said efficient solid waste management strategies are being undertaken by the three corporations to work on solutions.

“All these projects will be completed in two years time... After completion of these three projects, it is expected that no untreated garbage will be dumped at the landfill sites. The problem of garbage mounds is the legacy of six decades and multiple issues have made it a challenging task. As a result of intensive and continuous monitoring by the L-G through site visits, regular meetings, directions, and guidance, work is already underway to address these problems in a time bound manner in a comprehensive and sustainable way,” a statement from the L-G house said.

A scientific advisory committee comprising of high-level experts from the premier institutes of the country such as IITs, CSIR, and TERI was constituted in Sept 2017 by the department of science and technology of the government of India on the advice of Mr Baijal.

As a result of the 27 review meetings that he undertook with all stakeholders and 8 site visits since January 2017, the MCDs chalked out detailed plans and took steps to manage the 34 million metric tonnes of garbage in the form of legacy mounds and for closure of the sanitary landfill sites.

The project team of IIT-Delhi, which is involved with the three corporations and the scientific advisory committee for garbage disposal at these sites, has highlighted that the landfill height at all the three sites is excessive with steep slopes of inadequate stability.