Bioremediation of waste at a halt, garbage hills at Bhagtanwala continue to get bigger

Amritsar, November 6

With the years-old promise of processing lakhs of tonnes of waste through bioremediation at the Bhagtanwala garbage dumpsite remaining unfulfilled, the garbage hills at the site continue to grow by each passing day.

Despite several plans to deal with the waste, the amount of garbage has been increasing in each part of the 25-acre dumpsite. The Municipal Corporation has failed to remove the 30-foot-high heap of waste, which lies in middle of the dumping ground. The authorities have also failed to provide any respite to the residents living near the dumping site.

Machines lying defunct

• The MC had begun the process of bioremediation at the site in 2020. Residents of nearby areas said all these promises remained an eyewash
• Two companies withdrew from the project while the third one stopped working a few months ago. Machines installed at the dumpsite for bioremediation have been lying defunct for the last few months

Sanjiv Kumar, a resident of Bhagtanwala, said that fire often breaks out in the mountains of garbage at the dumpsite. He alleged that people engaged in dumping garbage deliberately start fires to clear the site.

Harjinder Singh, another resident of the area, said there were 23 dumpsites in the city, of which 22 were removed by the MC a few decades ago. Bhagtanwala became a major dumping ground, whereas decentralisation of refuse dumping was required here, he added.

Officials claimed that solid waste management machines had become damaged due to the rainy season and they had asked a company to get them repaired.

During his visit to the Bhagtanwala dumpsite in 2019, then Local Bodies Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu had announced a park on 20 acres of land there. He had said that due to non-viability of generating electricity from the waste, the MC would resort to bioremediation of the waste.

The site then had around 15 lakh metric tonnes of waste. Three units of machineries, including feeder, trammel, ballistic separator and magnetic separator to process the garbage, were to be installed.

The MC began the process of bioremediation at the site only in 2020. Residents of nearby areas said all these promises remained an eyewash.

Two companies withdrew from the project while the third one stopped working a few months ago. Machines installed at the dump site for bioremediation have been lying defunct.

MC Health Officer Yogesh Arora said the private company engaged by the civic body for bioremediation had processed about 4 lakh tonnes of refuse till May. He said there were five compost pits at Narayangarh, Gol Bagh, Chabal road, Challi Khoo and Bhagtanwala.

He refuted the allegations that MC officials start fires at the site. “The methane gas under the old garbage heaps lead to fires with rise in temperatures,” Arora said.