The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has denied letting out leachate from Jawaharnagar dump yard into the surrounding water bodies. However, due to excessive rain earlier this month, there was seepage, senior officials said.
“Leachate was not let out into water bodies. In fact, efforts are being made to improve its treatment to ambient standards,” said GHMC’s Additional Commissioner for Health and Sanitation, N. Ravi Kiran. Accordingly, the GHMC’s installed capacity of treating 300 litres of leachate per day was insufficient to meet the actual drain, which was many times higher. A new technology provided by a city-based firm was being tested at Jawaharnagar dump yard, Mr. Kiran informed.
Locals downstream of Jawaharnagar dump yard allege contamination of water bodies, which they attribute to large-scale fish mortality in the past week. Dead fish were reported at Dammaiguda Lake, in the immediate vicinity of the dump yard, and also on the shores of Edulabad Lake.
A pollution control board official informed that the recent spells of heavy rain were believed to have caused leachate seepage into the nearby water channels, and thereon to water bodies. Water samples have been collected from the lakes to explain fish mortality and also to see if leachate is to be blamed.
About the GHMC’s move to tackle leachate, Mr. Kiran added that efforts to complete capping of garbage have been stepped up. The civic body claims legacy leachate, which drains from the garbage dumped in the past and remains uncapped, was proving a challenge.
