Most large cities in the country are yet to clear land in 50% of their legacy landfill sites, even as they have a tight deadline of doing so by 2026.
Government data shows only 38% of the total dumped waste has been remediated so far.
Launched in 2021, the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Urban 2.0 has the target of clearing around 2,400 legacy landfill sites in the country by 2025-2026. But, of the 69 landfill sites in cities with population over 1 million, land is yet to be cleared in 35 sites.
Out of a total area of 3,354 acres with 1,258 lakh metric tonnes of waste in these 69 sites, only 1,171 acres with 475 lakh MT of waste have been cleared so far, which is not even half the target. With less than two years to go, the cities are facing the challenge of clearing the remaining 65% of land and remediating 62% of garbage left at the legacy landfill sites. These 69 sites in big cities account for 57% of the total waste dumped in landfills in the country.
Across the country, cities have a total 2,421 legacy landfill sites spread over 14,822 acres, with 2,211 lakh metric tonnes of waste. Of this, 41% of the waste has been remediated and 30% of the land reclaimed. About 20% (474) of the total landfills have been completely remediated so far, shows data.
Mumbai’s Deonar dumpsite, the largest landfill in the country at 296.5 acres, accounts for around 9% of the total waste accumulated at such sites in the country. No waste has been remediated and no area cleared at the site so far.
The second largest of the landfill sites in terms of waste quantity, the Pirana site in Ahmedabad, is undergoing remediation, with about 48% of the total area cleared so far.
Delhi’s Ghazipur and Bhalaswa sites, the third and fourth largest landfills, are also undergoing remediation, with 26% and 40% of waste remediated so far. But, no area has been cleared at the sites so far as the efforts have focused on reducing the height of the dumped waste.
The fifth largest site, Mulund in Mumbai, also has no area cleared so far, though 40% of the waste has been remediated.
Chennai’s Kodungaiyur site, the sixth largest site, has had no waste remediated and no land cleared so far. Delhi’s third landfill at Okhla, seventh largest in the country, has had 56% of the waste remediated, but no land cleared.
Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said, “In two years, 20% of the sites have been cleared completely… But there are others where the work is 50% done or 70% done or 10% done. We expect to complete this work in the next two years.”
To get funding from SBM Urban 2.0, cities are supposed to submit action plans to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for bioremediation of their legacy landfills and then reuse of the land cleared. The process involves sifting of the waste into different categories, leading to the creation of refuse derived fuel (RDF) for waste-to-energy plants, recycling of construction and demolition waste and bio-soil that can be used for road construction.
The SBM data shows that remediation is ongoing at 1,235 sites, while plans have been approved for another 682. Forty-nine sites are being remediated using state or other funding sources. That leaves 712 sites for which no plans have been indicated on the dashboard.
According to an expert, despite significant progress under SBM, a large portion of legacy waste and landfills continues to present environmental, health and space constraints for cities. Though remediation is ongoing, still the current methods are inadequate as proper planning was not carried out before starting the bioremediation process.
The most critical challenge is that the sites undergoing remediation were still being used to dump fresh waste. Without alternative locations to process fresh waste, the remediation process becomes a perpetual cycle. If a dumpsite processes 800 tonnes of legacy waste and simultaneously 1,000 tonnes of fresh waste is deposited, progress on legacy waste cleanup is offset, making the process inefficient and never-ending.
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