How Delhi can manage its waste sustainably
When the Centre launched the second edition of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) in 2021, it signalled a paradigm shift in efforts to create garbage-free cities. It emphasised the scientific treatment of waste to meet current and projected waste generation in cities and mandated civic authorities to remediate legacy waste dumpsites by March 31, 2024.
The ground reality, especially in India’s Capital city, offers a reality check. More than 200 acres of urban land in Delhi is occupied by 28 million tonnes of legacy waste. There is enough scientific evidence to show that air, groundwater and soil are getting contaminated because of existing dumpsites proliferating due to a two-decade-long process of waste mismanagement. About 11,500 tonnes of waste are generated daily in Delhi, around 50% of which finds its way to the dumpsites. In the name of treatment, the city relies extensively on the three waste-to-energy plants, further stressing the city’s compromised air quality.
The problem is twofold. One, the remediation of the three dumpsites, which needs to be done urgently to prevent the unprecedented environmental hazard. Two, strengthening management strategies and infrastructure for dealing with the waste generated daily. These two issues need equal importance, and the solutions should complement each other.
It is important to note that remediation of huge quantities of legacy waste in Delhi is much easier said than done. It is currently being undertaken by biomining, a scientific process of reclaiming the land occupied by dumpsites by excavation, treatment, sorting, gainful applications and disposal of legacy waste. But data from biomining of the Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhalswa dumpsites in Delhi presents a challenging picture. Currently, half of the city’s waste continues to reach these dumpsites. It is impossible to remediate legacy waste if the city keeps adding fresh municipal waste every day.
Managing fresh municipal solid waste requires systematic planning and execution. The cumulative installed capacity of the trommels — equipment used for sorting waste according to its size — at Delhi’s dumpsites is 22,000 tonnes per day. So the city can get rid of its legacy waste in another five to six years if these trommels are used exclusively for screening legacy waste. However, the major problem will still be dumping fresh municipal solid waste daily. If the present trend of dumping waste continues, Delhi will have to deal with another 10 million tonnes of accumulated waste by the end of five years.
While the mandate under SBM 2.0 looks promising, with a commitment for substantial financial devolutions by the Centre to improve the solid waste management ecosystem, a proper roadmap to divert fresh waste from reaching landfills is critical to the success of the endeavour. As per SBM 2.0, all the cities must prepare roadmaps to delineate how they will increase waste’s recovery and treatment efficiency and minimise their dependency on landfills. This will be possible only if waste components, especially wet (biodegradable) and dry (non-biodegradable), are properly segregated at the source. It is, therefore, equally important to invest in intensive behaviour change campaigns to secure the segregation of waste at source and provide a guaranteed collection service to the entire city. This is becoming the practice among many citizens in some cities, such as Bengaluru.
Residents of Delhi, therefore, should be motivated to embrace segregation voluntarily, but till that becomes a part of our social makeup, it should be backed up by a robust monitoring system and enforced through a series of by-laws by the municipal corporation. This can be achieved by the participation of all stakeholders and by instituting mechanisms of good governance.
Delhi — and other cities such as Indore, Surat, Bhopal, and Vijayawada — hold great potential to sustainably manage its waste and generate revenue by adopting source segregation, treating the waste appropriately, preferably in a decentralised approach, and minimising the quantity of waste ending up in a scientifically designed and operated landfill. This can only be achieved if there is political and administrative willingness and community participation. The focus on waste management in the ongoing campaign for municipal elections in Delhi will hopefully bring more attention to the subject, fuelling administrative zeal to implement some basic steps.