MCC yet to come up with solutions for waste problem

Despite a directive to shift dump yard it has rejected alternatives as unviable

At present, solid waste is being dumped at the Sewage Farm in Vidyaranyapuram in Mysore.

Even as the Mysore City Corporation (MCC) is shying away from looking at effective alternatives to tackle solid waste, the generation of which is going up at an alarming rate here, arguing that they are “unviable”, it is now faced with the biggest challenge of relocating the garbage dump yard away from Vidyaranyapuram here and identifying an appropriate site outside the city.

In the wake of the Lokayukta’s recent directive, the district administration had been asked to work towards shifting the solid waste treatment plant away from Vidyaranyapuram.

The stench from the waste dumped at the Sewage Farm had become a contentious issue with residents stepping up their demand for relocating the plant.

As the residents claimed that pollution from the plant was proving a health hazard, the residents of Vidyaranyapuram, J.P. Nagar and nearby localities have upped the ante against the plant.

Out of the 400 tonnes of solid waste being produced in Mysore, nearly 200 tonnes is handled by the treatment plant at Sewage Farm and the rest is dumped in landfills.

The MCC had plans to start nine such plants, but launched only five and three of them are not operational.

A senior officer in the MCC said: “Our focus is on identifying a new site for relocating the plant. We will look at effective alternatives to tackle solid waste or enhance the capacity of the waste treatment plant afterwards.”

The MCC has been dilly-dallying taking up measures for streamlining solid waste management current and future problems.

“To prevent a situation like in Bangalore, the MCC must act soon,” experts have suggested.

But, the MCC fruitlessly attempted to turn waste into useful resources. Some of its proposals for making best use of the solid waste to earn revenue have not taken off.

It thought of converting waste into energy as done in cities like Pune and Delhi, but did not make any headway.

The MCC proposed to set up a plant on a public-private partnership (PPP) model with support from the Eskilstuna Municipality, Sweden, which produces biogas from waste. But, despite these efforts and visiting Sweden to study the system, the proposal made no advance.

Now, an agency has submitted a proposal to MCC to convert plastic waste into crude oil.

A source in the MCC said special tenders will be invited soon for restarting the zero waste management plants here. Also, a deep burial of animal waste has also been proposed.