Untreated leachate, percolating from garbage, has been polluting the groundwater table in the outskirts of Bengaluru, but the complaints of villagers have mostly fallen on deaf ears.
Credit: DH Photo
Bengaluru: The BBMP has proposed to build a large plant to treat leachate (contaminated water) flowing out from the Mitaganahalli dump yard on the outskirts of Bengaluru, which receives almost half the garbage the IT capital produces every day. The project, estimated to cost Rs 75 crore, also shows all that is wrong in the BBMP’s existing system of dumping unprocessed garbage into large quarry pits as the approach is becoming both financially costly and environmentally hazardous.
A sum of Rs 75 crore is allocated in the Rs 291 crore funds released by the Centre’s 15th Finance Commission. Overall, the solid waste management (SWM) division of the BBMP has received Rs 129 crore while the rest has been allocated for lakes (Rs 49 crore), water supply (Rs 70 crore) and sanitation (Rs 43 crore).
Officials said the construction of a leachate treatment plant at Mitaganahalli was most needed as the situation around the landfill area had turned severe and needed an emergency solution. “The quarry pits surrounding the landfill were filled with leachate water which was running into several lakhs of litres,” the officer said, adding two processing plants and one landfill already have leachate treatment plants but smaller ones.
Last month, BBMP’s Commissioner Tushar Girinath along with Mahadevapura MLA Manjula Limbavalli visited the quarries which were filled with leachate (blackish water percolating from waste). During the visit, Girinath had promised the residents that the BBMP would set up a leachate plant under the public-private partnership (PPP) model.
While dumping garbage into large quarries is an easy solution adopted by the BBMP, responsible for managing the city’s 5,000 tonnes of waste, the experts have been urging the authorities to promote segregation at source, composting at ward levels and processing of waste because managing landfills are becoming costlier. Other than the initial costs, the BBMP has also been releasing village development fee (VDF) to create infrastructure in villages surrounding the landfills.
Other than leachate, the BBMP has set aside Rs 20 crore for the construction of stormwater drain around the Bellahalli landfill site, which has stopped receiving waste for the last two years. Officials said the drainage system is needed to stop rainwater flowing into the drain as it will eventually increase the quantity of leachate.
Insiders in the BBMP said the civic body should have created a stormwater drain when the Bellahalli landfill was receiving the waste and not after closing it.