Amid brouhaha over new waste plant, Dadumajra dump reaches new heights

Despite the humongous spending of public funds, even then 300 metric tonnes per day are being dumped every day at the Dadumajra site, where over 50,000 residents stay. Knowing that the dump emits various harmful gases, no immediate solution is being thought over. From carbon monoxide to hydrogen sulfide, methane to ammonia, landfills emit toxic gases, resulting in every third person staying in the vicinity suffering from severe skin and lung diseases, among others.

Chandigarh Municipal Commissioner Aninidita Mitra while speaking to The Indian Express said that “it was highly important to have a proper waste processing plant now because if they won’t process the waste and keep dumping it, it would create another mountain of waste and lead to further issues.”

On an average, the Union Territory (UT) generates 550 mt of waste of which dry waste is about 164 mt. Rest all of it is being dumped. “JP Plant was set up for dry and wet waste. We are processing all the dry waste we receive, remaining is taken away by the door-to-door garbage collector and sold to recyclers. Accordingly, we are processing 100 per cent dry waste. We are composting the wet waste received through composting,” Mitra said.

When quizzed that till the time new plant is set up, another waste dump would be ready, the commissioner said that at JP plant, whose a capacity has increased to 120 tonnes per day (tpd), facilities are being upgraded by the construction of sheds. “For the remaining quantum, we are setting up a temporary composting plant. Accordingly, we shall be processing full 100 per cent capacity of 350 tpd by December,” she added.

The then defunct JP Plant was upgraded last year to make it functional to process 100 per cent dry days waste. However, Mitra said, “short-term interventions” like upgrading JP Plant will be helpful only for a few years as the machinery is ageing. “As far as wet waste is concerned, temporarily we shall do composting. However, as disposal of compost is another challenge, we shall soon move to bioCNG till the time new plant does not come up,” she added.
Chandigarh is now putting forth the plan of setting up a new 550 mt capacity plant for 15 years. In 2020, they had terminated the agreement with Jaypee group, stating that no processing was being carried out.

Officials in the civic body said that no processing of waste was being carried out since 2013 and that led to the mountain of wastes here in the “City Beautiful”. Not just this, in the run up to process other wastes, the UT set up C and D waste plant, a facility to process horticulture and hazardous waste .Till the time, UT does not get the new plant which may take two years, a temporary composting plant would also be set up at a cost of Rs 20 crore.

Violation of laws

With the dump of waste, the authorities are not only endangering the lives of 50,000 people staying nearby, but are violating several laws too.

In a 1991 judgment, The Supreme Court has held that the Right to Life under Article 21 of the Constitution is a fundamental right and includes the rights to free air without pollution in the case of Subhash Kumar vs State of Bihar. “Right to Life is a fundamental right… and includes the right of enjoyment of pollution free water and air for full enjoyment of life,” the SC had said.

In another MC Mehta vs Kamalnath case, the apex court had said that any disturbance to “environmental elements like air, water and soil, would be hazardous to life and cannot be polluted”. The court had mentioned the “Doctrine of the Public trust” in its judgment. Not just this, several laws under the Environment Protection Act 1986 or water and solid waste management rules are also being violated.

Study had revealed how dump is impacting soil

A study done by Punjab Engineering college in 2017 mentioned how dump was impacting the soil as high concentration of copper and zinc was found in the soil as compared to other parts of the city. “Dadumajra landfill is the only designated dump yard in Chandigarh consisting of 45.11 acres of land and is situated in Sector 38 near Dadumajra Labour Colony where waste is being dumped without any source separation,” the study had noted.
It said that the garbage dump creates a constant pervasive stench and is creating a number of health issues among the residents of Dadumajra colony such as skin allergies, asthma, rashes on the faces, arms and legs, and problems in lungs and chests, the study added.

“The results revealed that the concentration of copper and zinc in the soil in the vicinities of Dadumajra landfill have a significant amount of higher concentration as compared to the soil in other parts of the city,” the study had claimed. It was clearly specified that a higher dosage of copper can cause health hazards such as anaemia, liver and kidney damage, stomach-related problems and intestinal irritation among the human beings. A higher dosage of zinc may lead to respiratory disorders, nausea, metal fume fever and epigastric pain.