Garbage makes way into Jhelum as Baramulla lacks solid waste management

Baramulla, Sep 26: Amid the non-availability of Solid Waste Management System, heaps of garbage have piled up at Jetty Baramulla near Jhelum riverbanks, making Jhelum stink.

The Jetty area has been designated an open dumping site by the concerned authorities and every day garbage in tons is openly dumped at the river banks, raising questions on the government efforts for keeping water bodies pollution free.

A single visit to the open dumping site at Jetty can turn hazardous as the whole area stinks, causing huge inconvenience to the people, particularly the residents of the area. The river banks are polluted at a time when the government is focusing on the Swachh Bharat Mission and creating awareness about the importance of keeping water bodies pollution free.

The Municipal Council (MC) Baramulla started door to door collection of waste and garbage over the last few years in a bid to keep the residential areas clean and pollution free. But the garbage collected from residential houses is directly dumped in open at Jetty, on jhelum banks.

Notably, Jhelum serves as the major source of water supply to the majority of the areas of the town while the consumers are apprehensive about the quality of the water supplied to them. "No doubt the PHE department filters the water before supplying it to the consumers but the way Jhelum is treated, we are apprehensive about the water supply as well," said Umar Mehraj, a resident of Baramulla.

Talking to Greater Kashmir, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) MC Baramulla Farhana Showkat said Jetty was their designated dumping site. "We are not deliberately dumping garbage there. We do not have a solid waste management facility constructed yet that is why we have to dump there," she said. She said a proposal has been sent for the facility of solid waste management system for accord and administrative approval. "In the coming months, work will start on the solid waste management facility following which the open dumping, happening now, will stop," she said.

She further said that there was no other site to take the garbage. "We do not have a facility where we can process it. Establishing a solid waste management system is a big project and in such big projects, environmental clearance is necessary. We had to apply for an environmental impact assessment clearance which is a very lengthy process due to which it took some time," she said. She however said the Solid Waste Management System was expected to "come soon."