Pune garbage crisis: Under NGT lens, records expose PMC’s claims of waste processing

Around 2,200 metric tons per day of waste is generated in the city spread across 516 sq km and having a population of around 50 lakh. Of the total waste collected in the city every day, one half is wet waste and the other half is dry waste, with the PMC claiming to process 2,100 metric tons of waste per day after it increased its processing capacity by 800 metric tons in the last three years.

It has been submitted to the NGT that the PMC stopped dumping untreated waste at Uruli Devachi depot since January 2020, but deposits around 400-500 metric tons of the reject, generated at various processing plants, at the scientific landfill site spread across the villages of Uruli Devachi and Phursungi.

There are 13 biogas plants, of 5-ton capacity each, and four large capacity processing plants to process the wet waste but the PMC relies more on sending the wet waste to agricultural lands in and around the city, as per information with the solid waste department. To dispose of an equal amount of dry waste, the PMC has 10 processing plants but most of the waste is deposited at the landfill site in Uruli Devachi than at any of the processing plants, officials said.

The NGT last year had fined the PMC an amount of Rs 2 crore for failure to clear the legacy waste as per the assurance given to the tribunal. The tribunal had stated that the PMC failed to complete the bio-remediation of the landfill site in the stipulated five years. However, the civic body informed the NGT that there was no fresh dumping of waste at the site since January 2020.

Tree plantations over the garbage covered by soil at Uruli Devachi. (Express Photo: Arul Horizon)

In its order dated January 6 this year on the petition filed by Uruli Devachi-Phursungi village resident Bhagwan Bhadale, the NGT directed the PMC to take further remedial measures to speedily and scientifically remediate the legacy waste while a joint committee of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has been asked to assess the compensation for the delay and inspect the status of compliance on April 30 before submitting a status report on the land reclaimed due to bio-mining.

“The committee has been asked to clarify the gap between waste generation and waste processed by the existing processing plans,” said lawyer Asim Sarode, representing petitioner Bhadale before the NGT. The petitioner had submitted that dumping of fresh waste continued at the landfill site which is already full and the pace of remediation of waste was very slow.

Earlier, the PMC in its status report filed in October last year stated that it had begun phase one of the bio-mining work with the target of processing nine lakh tons of legacy waste and completed it for 7.8 lakh tons till September last year so as to complete the work well before the September 2024 deadline. The PMC would launch the second phase of bio-mining soon to process around 10.50 lakh metric tons of legacy waste across 25 acres and complete it by August 2024.

Garbage from Shivajinagar area is collected in small vans before being segregated and put into bigger vans to be sent to the Urli Devachi yard. (Express Photo: Ashish Kale)

Here, the garbage is transferred to trucks to be sent to the Urli Devachi yard. (Express Photo: Ashish Kale)

Challenging the PMC’s claims on effective solid waste management, NCP legislator Chetan Tupe raised the issue in a recently held session of the state Legislative Assembly. “One-third of the waste generated in the city is openly dumped and the state government has admitted it,” said Tupe, slamming PMC’s claims as false.

He further said the PMC was using outdated technology to process the waste and violating NGT orders. “The PMC claims to be operating processing plants that generate power and biogas. However, there is no power or biogas generation in its plants. The wet waste is dumped in nearby farms and the agricultural land is getting adversely affected,” Tupe said.

Garbage is processed at PMC’s RDF & Compost plant in Uruli Devachi. (Express Photo: Arul Horizon)

At Uruli Devachi. (Express Photo: Arul Horizon)

The contractors are paid for poor service, he said, adding, “The processing plants of the PMC operate at 60 per cent of its capacity. A thousand tons of dry waste and 700 tons of wet waste are processed, while 600 metric tons (total) remains unprocessed. Further, the PMC does not collect the waste generated in the 34 villages newly included (in the city limits last year).”