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    PMO steps in to address Ghazipur landfill issue

    Synopsis

    The landfill, which is spread over 70 acres, started in 1984 and is still in use despite a planned site life of 25 years.

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    The landfill — which international publications last month said would rise higher than the Qutub Minar or even the slightly higher Taj Mahal (73 metres) — in the city has become an international embarrassment for the government at a time when cleanliness missions like Swachh Bharat have been successfully implemented and global debate is raging over climate change.
    NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has stepped in to seek help from global experts to grapple with the challenge posed by the country’s tallest mountain of waste at the Ghazipur landfill in Delhi that international publications recently said would rise higher than the Qutub Minar and the Taj Mahal in a few years.

    Can the 65-metre-high heap of rubbish be removed and 14 million tonnes of mixed waste lying there recycled into a source of energy? The PMO has tasked the principal scientific advisor to the government, who directly advises the Prime Minister through a Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council, to find an authoritative answer to this question.

    According to a request for proposal (RFP) seen by ET, the principal advisor has been entrusted with resolving the “two challenges” of the Ghazipur dump site: removal and valorisation (recycling or composting wastes) at the open landfill site, and management and treatment of the continuous flow of 2,200 tonnes of fresh waste per day.

    “The most ambitious expected outcome is zero landfill,” says the document, spelling out an 18-month time frame for a pilot project in which land adjoining to the Ghazipur landfill and funds will be allotted by the government to the selected parties for testing out their technological solutions before they are considered for a further scale-up. “The progress will be monitored at the highest level,” said an official, who did not wish to be identified.

    The landfill is causing serious environmental problems and “global impacts” in terms of greenhouse emissions, as per the RFP. The urgency in tackling the challenge is also evident in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) order of two days ago in which it asked Delhi’s civil bodies to clear the three landfills in the city at a cost of Rs 250 crore through bio-mining starting October 1, and said that it would review the progress after one year.

    The landfill — which international publications last month said would rise higher than the Qutub Minar or even the slightly higher Taj Mahal (73 metres) — in the city has become an international embarrassment for the government at a time when cleanliness missions like Swachh Bharat have been successfully implemented and global debate is raging over climate change.

    The Centre’s aim, as spelt out in the RFP document, in seeking expert help from private companies, academia and civil society from India and outside is directed towards “meeting the global sustainable development goals and an environment and health impact assessment”, as the waste dump is polluting soil as well as water.

    The document cites a host of technologies that can be used for “mitigation and complete degradation” of the Ghazipur landfill waste and for amelioration of the waste and its valorisation, treatment of leachates and mitigation of contaminated subsoil and groundwater and segregation of fresh waste at source and its recycling to avoid addition of fresh waste to the landfill site.

    Valorisation of waste is an activity aimed at reusing, recycling, or composting waste into useful products or sources of energy. The landfill, which is spread over 70 acres, started in 1984 and is still in use despite a planned site life of 25 years. Around three million people live within 10 km radius of Ghazipur and its nearest residential settlement is just 200 metres away.


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