The Jawaharnagar dumping yard of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is getting its first clay layer of 150 mm using 4.98 cubic tonnes as part of the capping exercise which is being taken up across the 339 acre site, where an estimated 14 million tonnes of garbage has been accumulated since 1994.
Senior municipal officials claimed on Wednesday that an extent of 3.40 lakh square metres has been given the soil layer of the total of 4.44 lakh square metres of the dump yard. The entire capping is being done in six phases emulating the best international practices and soon, the agency entrusted with the job through a tender will also begin laying a geo-synthetic clay layer.
This will be followed by laying of a a geo-composite layer and then finally a 45 cm clay layer. Finally, grass and other plants would be planted. Even as the six layers are put in place, 300 mm pipes are going to be burrowed to an extent of 20 km into the ground. These are being laid to ensure the gases emanating from the dump are let out.
The layers are put in such a manner that the leachate from the garbage too is collected in an environment friendly way flowing through gravity, they explained. Hyderabad Integrated Solid Waste Management Ltd is pressing 22 excavators, three bulldozers and four compacters for the mammoth exercise, which has been pending with the municipal corporation for the last decade or so.
The entire work is expected to be completed by February next year as directed by Municipal Administration Minister K.T. Rama Rao. It will come as a great relief to the colonies around the dump yard, where residents have been complaining not only about the foul odour emanating from it, but also groundwater pollution due to leachate from the garbage, senior officials pointed out.
