Municipal solid waste that litters the urban scene in India represents a serious failure of governance. According to 2011 estimates, major Indian cities generate 100 million tonnes of waste annually.
Most of it goes to the landfills, but according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 40% of this waste remains uncollected. A good amount of the waste also gets dumped alongside the highways, into water bodies, and every conceivable patch of unoccupied land.
Landfills take the major part of urban solid waste. Rather than scientifically preparing the land for receiving the waste, the municipal bodies just designate a certain area as the dumping yard.
As could be seen from the protests from residents of the villages surrounding the landfills at Mandur and Mavallipura (that take the waste from Bangalore), landfills cause a number of problems. Principal among them is the pollution of the local environment.
Besides emitting inflammable methane into the air, the leachate from them contaminates the ground water and water courses. Methane is a greenhouse gas and could be potentially explosive. Being inflammable, it exposes the area to fire hazards. Landfills also act as a hatchery for all kinds of vectors and vermin and are a breeding ground for flies, rats and dogs.
Constant movement of dumping vehicles can cause infrastructure disruption and generate dust, noise and vehicular pollution. Landfills could also be hazardous for wildlife and birds. Landfills also bring down real estate value for surrounding areas.
Scientific planningDeveloped countries of the West have laid down elaborate legislation with regards to location, control, monitoring and closure of landfills. A landfill should be located away from flood plain, reserve forests or wildlife sanctuaries, and surface water sources.
Certain items such as paints, chemicals, lubricants, pesticides, and electronic items should not form part of the dumped waste. Landfills in the Hawaii Islands in the United States are supposed to be underlaid with rubberised liners to prevent leachate from percolating into the ground.
In some other States of the U.S., the bottom is overlaid with two feet of compacted clay. Some landfills are underlaid with a bed of sand and gravel interspersed with perforated pipes that collect leachate and transport it to a sump from where it is pumped to a treatment plant.
Monitoring groundwaterAll landfills are required to undergo test for contamination of groundwater at regular intervals during their active life and also for 30 years of post-closure period. It is presumed that the landfill will be stable and will not require intensive monitoring after this period. Golf courses, hiking trails and ski slopes have come up on several such closed landfills in various cities.
Dismissive attitudeUnfortunately, our dismissive attitude towards sanitation and waste management does not help the cause for concerted research in the area. No university has come up with departments to study the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) problem. Misconceptions about MSW abound and public perceptions have consequences in a democracy. Landfills could be turned into a resource for waste-to-energy plants (See Greene Valley story alongside). Other modern waste management practices could also be implemented to minimise the risk to health and hygiene.
(The author can be contacted at maqsiraj@gmail.com)
