123 Acre Landfill Site & 11 Lakh MTs of Legacy Waste?

The Commissioner Srinagar Municipal Corporation-SMC has revealed some horrifying facts before the National Green Tribunal-NGT recently. He told the NGTs three member bench of Justice Prakash Shrivastava (Chairperson), Justice Sudhir Agarwal (Judicial Member) and Dr. A. Senthil Vel, (Expert Member) on December 12th 2024 that 11 lakh metric tons (MTs) of legacy waste is lying dumped at Achan landfill site in Saidapora Achan. In addition to it 400 tons of waste gets added to it daily.

The Achan Saidapora landfill site is set up on 123 acres (984 kanals) of wetland nambal / agriculture land. The locals would grow paddy on this land for centuries. In the late 1980s SMC took it over and started using it as a landfill site. Even until 10 to 15 years back the paddy was being cultivated by locals of Achan Saidapora in the surrounding agri land that is located outside the boundary wall of landfill site. But this land has become uncultivable as there is constant seepage of leachate from SMCs 11 lakh metric tons of legacy waste. On a regular basis SMC collects 600 Tons per day -TPD municipal solid waste that is also dumped at Achan unscientifically. SMC claims they treat 150 tons of waste and landfill 450 tons but the reality is that not even 50 tons of municipal solid waste is treated. Ironically the magnetic disintegration machine set up by SMC around 7 years back is also lying defunct and crores of rupees were spent on installing the same ?

NGT’s order 

On 12th December 2024 the NGT’s three member bench of Justice Prakash Shrivastava (Chairperson), Justice Sudhir Agarwal (Judicial Member) and Dr. A. Senthil Vel, (Expert Member) heard this case which has been filed by this author early this year. The three member bench of Judges said :

“As per the report filed by the Commissioner, the current generation of waste is 600 TPD which is projected to increase 918.04 TPD by 2028. The composition of the said daily generation includes wet waste of 360 TPD which is 60 % of the total waste and 240 TPD of dry waste which is 40% of the total waste. Presently, the waste processing capacity in Srinagar is insufficient. Only 150 TPD is processed, which includes 50 TPD of wet waste, which is processed by compositing and 100 TPD by material recovery facility. The balance 450 TPD goes to the landfill site “

Srinagar heading for disaster

There is a wrong notion among the people across the country that Srinagar is a neat and pristine city. The tourists are shown on the front side of Dal Lake, but nobody is aware of the fact that Srinagar is a trash city. I brought these facts into the notice of NGT and that is the reason they constituted a Joint Committee to visit the Achan landfill site in May this year. Members of Central Pollution Control Board -CPCB, National Wetlands Committee, along with JK Pollution Control Committee and DC Srinagar visited the site. This petitioner was also present during that visit. The visiting team were shocked and found massive lapses on part of SMC . The committee submitted a detailed report before NGT. A part of this detailed report reads as:

“A critical issue identified during the inspection was the complete non-functionality of several key waste processing facilities. The mechanical segregator, with a capacity of 100 tons per day, was found out of order, forcing workers to rely on inefficient manual segregation. Additionally, all three leachate treatment plants-LTPs , with a combined capacity of 120 KLD were non-operational, as were borewells meant to monitor groundwater quality.”

The report further said that a faecal sewage treatment plant -FSTP with a capacity of 130 KLD per day and a septage treatment plant were defunct and lack of functional leachate collection systems has led to untreated leachate flowing directly into a drain connected to Anchar Lake, situated just 500 meters from the landfill.

Violation of MSW Rules

After going through the joint committee report and the response provided by the Commissioner, Srinagar Municipal Corporation -SMC the NGTs three member bench in its order said:

“We are of the opinion that no positive steps to address the solid waste, the leachate issue, or the sewage problem are being taken by the authorities. The effluent discharge is directly entering the streams and the river. Hence, there is complete violation of MSW rules, including the Water Act 1974”

The NGT three member bench after taking into consideration the seriousness of the issue, directed the Commissioner, Srinagar Municipal Corporation to provide a time-bound action plan to mitigate the situation on a mission mode. In addition to it the J&K Pollution Control Committee - PCC was also directed to initiate action against the violations as mandated under relevant rules and laws.

Conclusion 

The situation is very dangerous. 11 lakh MTs of legacy waste and 400 tons getting added to it daily in a low-lying land of mere 123 acres is a matter of serious concern. What are the plans of our elected Govt regarding this? Will PCC take action against the SMC by imposing environmental compensation -EC as mandated under the Polluter Pays Principle -PPP formula ?

Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat is an Acumen Fellow and Chairman J&K Climate Action Group