Lakes, farms, and government lands on the outskirts of the city have turned into dump yards for construction and debris (C&D) waste. Notwithstanding special drives by the civic body, including identifying large parcels of private lands to accommodate the waste, many lakebeds in the city have been witnessing reckless dumping of C&D waste.
Sandeep Anirudhan, a conservation activist from Whitefield, recently caught a truck dumping C&D waste into the Pattandur Agrahara lake. “This dumping has been going on for many months now. The lake is not fenced and hence has unguarded access from the road side. Several trucks come and dump C&D waste into the lakebed in broad daylight,” he said.
The truck did not even have a number plate, indicating it was part of an organised network, he said.
Lakes in Sarjapur have been plagued by similar issues. Last November, residents staged protests to save the Doddakere lake from reckless sand extraction and dumping of C&D waste.
Residents around the Sompura lake, another waterbody in the neighbourhood, have also started complaining that C&D waste is being dumped by an apartment project near the tank bed.
Sarfaraz Khan, Joint Commissioner, SWM, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), conceded that the menace was still prevalent though the civic body had been penalising those dumping C&D waste in lakebeds and drains with hefty fines going up to ₹10,000 in some cases.
“Part of the problem also is the lack of fixed destinations and processing capacity for C&D waste. But that is soon set to change. BBMP has awarded work order to a private firm to put up a C&D waste processing plant in an abandoned quarry at Kannur in north Bengaluru with a capacity to process 2,000 tonnes per day (TPD) of C&D waste. The plant is expected to come up in another three months,” Mr. Khan said.
The BBMP is also planning to formalise the sector through empanelled vendors like for bulk generators of waste in the city.
“We want to empanel vendors in all zones across the city, fix a particular price for lifting and delivering a load of C&D waste to a Kannur quarry and give out a toll free number to book a tractor. These vehicles of empanelled vendors will be fit with GPS to ensure they don’t dump waste anywhere and deliver it to the predetermined destination,” said D. Randeep, Special Commissioner, SWM, BBMP.
