Journalism of Courage
With the capacity of its existing scientific landfill site in Uruli Devachi-Phursungi to last only for the next six months, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to set up a new one in the Pune Cantonment jurisdiction on an eight-acre land and create an additional one on a five-acre land in the premises of the garbage depot in Uruli Devachi.
“The PMC has successfully achieved the target of stopping open waste dumping. The entire waste is processed at various plants across the city, and the rejected waste is disposed of at a scientific landfill site as per the law,” said additional municipal commissioner Kunal Khemnar.
He said that the present scientific landfill site in Uruli Devachi and Phursungi would reach its capacity in the next six months. “The PMC has to have a new scientific landfill site ready in the next few months. We have decided to join hands with the Pune Cantonment Board to develop a landfill site on their land. This would be used jointly by the PMC and Cantonment Board. It is being developed on eight-acre land,” Khemnar said, adding that the PMC would also develop another scientific landfill site in Uruli Devachi-Phursungi.
The civic body will have to have at least one landfill site for disposing of its rejected waste until there is a technology to process the rejected waste material, he said. The waste is processed at plants across the city using different technologies for waste to energy.
The PMC has undertaken the biomining of waste dumped in the open at a garbage dumping ground in Uruli Devachi and Phursungi. The 163-acre land is being reclaimed slowly by processing the dumped waste and is being proposed to be used as green space and for setting up a waste processing plant.
Incharge of the civic solid waste management department, Deputy Municipal Commissioner Asha Raut said, “The PMC is planning to start a processing plant to process hazardous e-waste generated in the city. We do not have the facility now, but it will be created soon.”
The PMC has a small-size incinerator for disposing of sanitary waste. The civic body is working on setting up a large capacity sanitary waste processing unit that would recycle the trash,” she said.
The civic body has appointed Swach, a cooperative of waste collectors, to segregate dry and wet waste at the source so that it is speedily disposed of scientifically. Around 2,200 tonnes of waste is generated in the city every day.
“Swach representatives cover most of the city,” she said, adding that the waste collector agency’s work had been appreciated nationally and internationally.
