Give Srinagar a breather!
Amid sharp rise in temperature, unbearable pungent smell emanating from Srinagar’s lone garbage dump at Achan fills the air! The pristine air of Srinagar is literally stinking!
The pungent smell has made the lives of people, especially living in Downtown, miserable. We need to understand the genesis of this bad odour. It starts from waste generated from houses. In absence of segregation of waste at source, all sort of garbage including chicken waste gets mixed and reaches the Achan garbage dump. And the dumping of the waste till disposing of triggers the perishable waste to rot and stink.
The Achal Land fill site spreading over 517 kanals has been catering to waste generated in Srinagar from 1986. Earlier the garbage was openly dumped at Noor Bagh area. Till 2008, the waste was dumped in the landfill site in blatant violation of norms. The stench took a heavy toll on people living around the landfill site. Also the leachate from the land fill site severely damaged the flora and fauna in Anchar lake.
After massive outcry, the project to convert the open dumping site into Sanitary landfill site was formulated in 2008. The project was handed over to Jammu and Kashmir Economic Reconstruction Agency (JKERA). However, it proved to be a challenging rather impossible task. It was a herculean task to treat tons of dumped garbage. Finally a cell was constructed with a capacity to treat.
Initially JKERA too faced massive challenges to start the project as it had a mammoth task to brave tons of dumped garbage and stink. Finally work on the first phase started in 2009. It constructed cell-1 of 1.74 lakh metric tons of waste. Later two more cells were constructed and the waste was kept between geo synthetic liners with the top layer consisting of vegetative soil and vegetation. JKERA also developed a facility to scientifically dispose of leachate, made buffer zones. In 2017, SMC took over the management of Achan garbage dump. To reduce loads on these cells, it was mandatory to construct a waste-to-energy plant at Achan. However, the plant was not constructed despite the directions of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) within an 18-month timeframe. Despite the passage of 8 years, no headway has been made on the project.
Imagine in absence of scientific measures, how more than 500 metric tons of garbage generated daily in Srinagar is being disposed off! Taking note of environment and health hazards due to unscientific garbage disposal at Achan, a noted environmental activist Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat filed a petition with NGT seeking its intervention. The NGT’s The Principal Bench acknowledged that the application raises substantial issues relating to compliance with environmental norms and implementation of provisions of scheduled enactments.
The NGT had directed to take note of unscientific waste dumping at Achan landfill site. On July 15 last year a team constituted by NGT visited the Achan to ascertain ground position and the extent of pollution caused by the illegal dumping at the site.
The committee in its report revealed that there is non-functionality of several key waste processing facilities at Achan. It stated that 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, with a combined capacity of 120 KLD were non-operational, as were bore-wells meant to monitor groundwater quality.”
The report also revealed that the faecal sewage treatment plant with a capacity of 130 KLD per day and a septage treatment plant were defunct. “The 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.”
On March 24 this year, the NGT took strong note of unscientific waste dumping at Achan landfill site and recommended action against 8 eight commissioners who were posted in Srinagar Municipal Corporation between 2017-2025. Besides, the NGT had recommended imposition of Environmental Compensation of Rs 12 crore on SMC. The SMC was also directed to give an undertaking to ensure 11.50 lakh metric tons of legacy waste dumped at the Achan landfill site will be cleared in 2 years. However, despite the directions, not much has been done at the landfill site. Amid risk of outbreak of an epidemic, scientific measures must be executed to prevent emanation of a pungent smell from the garbage dumps.
We have to understand the historical, cultural, economical and ecological importance of Srinagar. Dotted with water bodies, Srinagar needs state-of-the-art sanitation facilities to preserve its eco-fragile environment. Government has taken a leap to make Srinagar city join the elite club of Smart Cities in the country, but we lag behind waste management!
Let’s work for strengthen our garbage collection and disposal mechanism using a mixture of traditional means and modern technology. Why cannot we practice composting of perishable kitchen waste to reduce load of garbage generation at our land fill site. There must be a system where we can segregate different kinds of waste at our homes and simultaneously the government can come up with a comprehensive garbage collection system.
Besides being responsible citizens, it is our religious and moral duty to keep our surroundings clean like we keep our homes. It is our city, our environment and our future! Let’s resolve and take a vow to keep Srinagar clean and green.
Author is Executive Editor, Greater Kashmir
