Concerned about the East Delhi Municipal Corporation’s (EDMC) proposal to develop a 150-acre landfill and a waste-to-energy plant on the banks of the Yamuna, environmentalists have started a petition asking the Delhi government to put the brakes on the move.
Initiated by Manoj Misra of NGO Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan and Vimlendu Jha, the petition will be submitted to Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. According to the petition, the plan is the “most preposterous and ill-conceived proposal in the history of the Yamuna and urban governance in the country”.
‘Delhiites more vulnerable’
The petition has also called this plan a civil rights violation as it deliberately makes lives of Delhiites more vulnerable and subjects them to toxins that enter the water stream. “The EDMC says it is proposed in public interest. Whose public interest are they talking about?” it has asked.
EDMC maintains stand
The EDMC, meanwhile, has maintained that it only planned the facilities at the site given to it by the land-owning agency. “This is the site the Delhi Development Authority gave to us. We only proposed the landfill and the plants there. We have sought the NGT’s approval,” said a senior EDMC official.
According to the petition, “The proposal is ipso facto illegal as it violates The Water Act, 1974, Solid Waste Management Rules, 2000 and 2016 and is in the teeth of the NGT’s ‘ Maily se nirmal Yamuna’ judgment of 13 January, 2015.”
As per the petition, the Solid Waste Management Rules say that landfills cannot be allowed within zones of coastal regulation, wetlands, critical habitat areas, sensitive eco-fragile areas and floodplains as recorded in the last 100 years. The petition says that the site in question has been an active floodplain that was flooded in 1978, 1988, 1995, 2008, 2010 and 2013.
“Although segregation at source, sustainable production and consumption, cradle-to-cradle approach in manufacturing, etc., could have been a wiser waste management solution, landfills have become a necessity in modern society. The collection and disposal of waste into centralised locations, in theory, minimises risks to public health and safety,” the petition added.
Landfills: public hazard
However, it also said that landfills are public health hazards; for example Anand Vihar reports the worst air quality and water quality because of the Ghazipur landfill in its neighbourhood.
The water samples collected around existing landfills in Ghazipur and Bhalswa have been found unfit for human consumption.
“The proposal to build a landfill on the banks of the Yamuna is dangerous. It will sit over a source of drinking water, it is in a zone of high seismic activity and is near a densely populated area, which is close to several archaeological sites. We are also conveniently ignoring the situation that may arise due to flooding,” said Mr. Misra.
