CENTRE WANTS BMC REPORT ON WASTE MGMT AT DEONAR PLOT

MUMBAI: Waste dumped at Deonar is not treated and solid waste management rules are not being followed, a two-member panel Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar appointed has found.

Javadekar has asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to put in place a waste management system for the Deonar dump yard. The minister also called for a meeting in Delhi with the civic body and Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), among others, in connection with the repeated fires at Deonar. Civic chief Ajoy Mehta and additional municipal commissioner (projects) Sanjay Mukherjee attended .

The integrated waste management system will involve collection, recycling and disposal of waste . Tata Consultancy Services will look at different ways in which waste can be disposed of at Deonar, instead of focussing just on existing technologies such as the wasteto-energy and waste-to-compost projects. Following Wednesday’s meeting, BMC has also been asked to submit a report, in a month, to the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MOEF) on what long-term and short-term measures it will implement at the Deonar landfill.

The BMC has told MOEF its current focus is on closing down the Mulund dump yard — one of Mumbai’s three. It is also looking at extracting combustible methane (its abundance has been stoking the fires) and stabilising garbage heaps more than 35m high.

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