Delhi LG back in action, views landfill projects in city

Lieutenant governor VK Saxena, who heads a high-level committee on waste management constituted by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), on Tuesday said that the bio-remediation work to flatten Delhi’s three landfill sites has gathered pace and is expected to reach a removal rate of 900,000 tonne per month soon.

Saxena made the remark after visiting the Okhla, Ghazipur, and Bhalswa landfills — his first visit to the sites after the central government’s on May 19 promulgated an ordinance that effectively nullified a May 11 Supreme Court judgement, which shifted the authority of controlling bureaucrats in the national capital from the LG to the elected Delhi government.He tweeted, “Happy to report that bioremediation of waste has picked up unprecedented pace and will soon reach 30K MT/Day, effecting 9 Lakh MT/Month, compared to the 1.41 Lakh MT/Month when I first visited Ghazipur on 29.05.22, right after taking over. My gratitude to the people of Delhi for being a part of this mission aimed at ridding the Capital of its mountains of shame.”

In comparison, the processing rate was 141,000 tonne per month in May last year.NGT, on February 16, constituted the Solid Waste Monitoring Committee (SWMC) headed by LG on the lines of the high-level committee for the rejuvenation of Yamuna.An LG secretariat official said that the total legacy waste at the three dump sites was 22.91 million tonne in June 2022, which now stands at 15.49 million tonne, down by 7.42 million tonne (32.38%) within a year.

Clearing the garbage mountains of Delhi was also one of the 10 promises made by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the run-up to the municipal elections held last year, after which chief minister Arvind Kejriwal visited the landfill sites in March and announced expedited deadlines to clean the sites — Okhla by December this year, Bhalswa by March 2024, and Ghazipur by December 2024.However, the new common deadline set by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is May 2024 for the bio-remediation of all legacy waste at the three landfill sites, as confirmed by the LG office.

Bio-mining and remediation processes separate various components of legacy waste such as plastic, paper, cloth, sand, and bricks by passing them through trommel machines which act as cylindrical rotating sieves. Dumping more silt and fresh waste reverses the progress and slows down the net gains but there are no alternatives available with the civic body, an MCD official said.

According to on official from the LG office, the Bhalswa landfill remediation project has performed above the expectations between February and May while Ghazipur has been slowest. “During the last quarter, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) lifted inert waste for its road development project at Karala Majri, Burari, Kundli, and Holambi, among other areas. An innovative step involving the use of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) from legacy waste was also taken by JK Cements Limited, Chhitorgarh, Ultratech Cement, and some paper mills in Western Uttar Pradesh, which used the RDF in their furnace.At present, a total of 80 trommel machines are segregating waste at the three landfill sites and 12 new machines have been added since June last year and five additional machines are expected to be added by 30 June 2023,” the official added.Saxena on Tuesday also tweeted about visiting Bhalswa Lake, sparking a feud with the AAP-led Delhi government, which accused him of taking “false credit” to clean the water body.

The LG tweeted, “Visited Bhalswa Lake & appreciated the efforts undertaken by DDA in rejuvenating this priceless asset of the Capital after my first visit on 15.10.2022. While stoppage of cow dung dumping from the Bhalswa Dairy has brought down the BOD from 49 to 14 in the water body, makeover of the embankment has richly refurbished it… We soon plan to launch water sports & other recreational activities in the lake for the people of Delhi.”

In response, Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said, ““LG has been on a spree to claim credit for all the works of Yamuna cleaning, lake rejuvenation, and desilting of drains which have been going on for several years. It is unfortunate that the LG office is indulging in such petty public relations activities.”Hitting back, an official from the LG secretariat said Bharadwaj’s allegations were “bereft of facts”.
“No work to clean the waterbody was going on (till October). The LG then directed the DDA to take over the lake. That’s when the cleaning work actually started,” the official said.