Not just garbage, BMC has lot to clean up as CPCB report in SC raises Adampur stink
Obtaining the consent is a legal prerequisite to start operating a solid waste disposal site. The facility has the environmental clearance and the 'Consent to Establish' (CTE) but not CTO, says the report.
The report also points out that heap of legacy waste accumulated at the dumping site is due to a shortfall of 125 metric tonne in disposal of 800 metric tonne waste generated in Bhopal every day. The legacy waste is prone to fire incidents.
The risk is more in summer season.
Referring to the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) estimate, the report said that the legacy waste accumulated at the dumpsite is 7,70,382.86 cubic metre. The report also flags absence of safeguards at the facility. In another remarkable figure in the report, the CPCB said that the maximum quantity of legacy waste comprises plastic of over 38% of the total legacy waste accumulated at the dumpsie.
It's remarkable in the sense that use of plastic has been completely banned in MP since 2017 and yet, it is so much in use that about 40% of waste generated in Bhopal, the state capital of MP, happens to be plastic, a non-biodegradable waste. The waste processing facility at Adampur dumpsite spread over a total are of about 45 acre area was developed by the BMC in Nov 2020, the report says. The solid waste processing facility for management of daily generated fresh waste is installed in 4 acre area (since 2021) and a sanitary landfill developed on 5 acre.
The report further said that as per the log book records, total 850 tonnes per day (TPD) municipal solid waste is generated daily in Bhopal and approximately 50 metric tonne of waste is segregated at decentralised material recovery facilities (MRFs) established at various garbage transfer stations in the city. On an average, 800 TPD waste is received at Adampur site. Out of this, 290 MT is segregated wet waste which is directly sent for composting while 510 MT of mixed waste is segregated into wet waste (approx.
305 TPD), dry waste (approx.155 TPD) and inert (approx. 50 TPD). The processing capacity of the segregation facility is 420 TPD, leaving a gap of 90 TPD and hence the actual quantities of the screened products generated (wet and dry waste and inert) may be less than what has been informed by BMC, said the report. A sanitary landfill (SLF) of about 5-acre area has been constructed at the site. However, no compaction or covering with inert material/ soil/ C&D waste is practiced at this SLF site.
Solid waste, spread in 5-acre area is exposed to the ambient environment. A leachate collection tank and a leachate treatment plant have been installed at the site for sanitary landfill leachate. Environmental Clearance (EC) and Consent to Establish (CTE) have been issued for municipal solid waste processing of 850 TPD and SLF of 3,80,000 Cum.
However, there is no valid Consent to Operate (CTO) available with the present operator at the site, the report said.
At the site, legacy waste (till the waste facilities were developed in 2020) is dumped over an area of 27 acre without any processing. There is a gap of 125 TPD (90 TPD in segregation and 35 TPD in composting) in the present processing capacity of the SWM facilities, which is also disposed of at this dumpsite.
A waste-to-energy (WTE) plant was planned to be set up at site However, the proposed WTE plant could not be set up, which led to accumulation of large volumes of legacy waste at the site.
In absence of compaction, the waste remains spread across the area. Essential construction components such as impervious lining system and leachate collection system are missing. During the rainy season, rainwater percolates through the unprocessed waste at the site, leading to the generation of leachate. This leachate subsequently drains toward the lower areas.
Environmentalist Subhash C Pandey, on whose application CPCB inspection of the site was ordered by the Supreme Court, said that the report is satisfactory but it omitted that except for the north side, there is no green belt developed on three sides of the facility, which was mandatory and on the east side, at the place where there should have been a green belt, a bio-CNG plant has been installed and he will point it out in the supreme court.
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