Towering over Mavallipura village, mounds of mud-capped garbage spew smoke. Self-combusting methane is not the only horror produced by the festering garbage within. A blackish stream springs out of the mound and flows along the channels towards a putrid pond devoid of life at the foot of the hill. “When the monsoons pick up, this leachate will flow into the nallah criss-crossing the village and enter our lakes,” said Srinivas, a resident of the village.
In July 2012, local protests and mounting pressure from the High Court of Karnataka saw the civic body stop using Mavallipura as a landfill. Seven years later, the overwhelming stench from the 100-acre landfill has subsided, but leachate from lakhs of tonnes of dumped garbage continues to percolate into the groundwater and lakes in the area.
Barely 100 metres from Yellappa’s house in Mavallipura is a community borewell. But his sole water source is tankers, at a cost of ₹600 a week, from Yelahanka New Town, nearly 8 km away. “Even if the borewell water is offered for free, no one will take it. It is dirty and forms a film of grime, much like cream on milk. This grimy layer though eats through plastic buckets and makes our livestock sick,” he said, adding with consternation, “This suffering will continue for at least two generations.”
For most of his farming life, B. Nagaraju had relied on a borewell, some 500 metres from the dumpyard, to irrigate his five-acre farmland where he grows cauliflower, cabbages and leafy vegetables. A month ago, he got a new 1,350-ft borewell dug much further away. “Water from the older borewell affects the vegetables. We thought this problem would be solved when the landfill was closed... But our groundwater is too contaminated now for us to use borewells for drinking purposes.”
Spreading contamination
A growing body of research shows that the condition of Mavallipura is deteriorating as the perennial stream of leachate continues unabated.
Researchers from the University of Agriculture Sciences, Dharwad, who analysed seven borewell samples from a 2-km radius, found that the Total Dissolved Solid, Total Hardness, Calcium, Magnesium and Nitrates concentrations were above acceptable limits for drinking water. “Unless proper measures to control the contamination of leachate from the dump site are not taken, there will be a serious threat to the subsurface water,” states the study, which was published last year. Even the State-run Public Health Institute’s testing of five sources of water found them not suitable for drinking purposes.
Through multiple studies, Naveen B.P., an assistant professor at Amity University, Haryana, has researched the leaks and their potential effects on the environment. “A landfill is constructed with liners and collection systems to manage the leachate. But because of unsegregated waste and mismanagement of this landfill, the linear system has been punctured. This has resulted in the creation of significant leachate, contaminating waterbodies, ponds and open well water. It will continue to migrate... and will follow the hydraulic gradient of the groundwater system,” he said.
Drinking water
The issue of leachate contamination has been a feature in the High Court’s deliberations on the topic following multiple writ petitions. In 2015, the court ordered the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike to set up 24 RO purifying plants across the region, apart from conducting health camps and surveys.
“These plants worked for a year only. Now, it is the local panchayat that has revived a few. After the dumping stopped, the BBMP completely forgot the mess it created in the village,” said B. Srinivas, State general secretary of the Dalita Sangarsha Samiti and one of the petitioners in the High Court case against the landfill.
Bioremediation soon
An oft-made promise of removing “legacy” waste from Mavallipura may be picking up some steam finally.
In 2015, the BBMP assured the High Court that bioremediation would be conducted at Mavallipura and Mandur, where lakhs of tonnes of garbage was dumped. The assurance was trapped in bureaucratic red tape until the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ordered the removal of “legacy waste” from landfills across the country. This included removal of unsegregated waste and treatment of leachate.
By February this, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had issued guidelines on the removal of waste in disused landfills. And earlier this month, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) held a meeting with the BBMP about this. “The issue of legacy waste is serious and poses a threat. The civic body will have to recover it according to the CPCB guidelines,” said Manoj Kumar, member-secretary of KSPCB.
The NGT directions seem to have spurred the civic body. “We are in the process of appointing consultants to prepare an action plan, first for the Mandur landfill and then for Mavallipura. Funds will have be committed to this soon,” said D. Randeep, Additional Commissioner (Solid Waste Management), BBMP.
