Long road to generate wealth from waste

Charanjit Singh Teja

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Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 3

Even after the recommendations of the National Green Tribunal, the Municipal Corporation failed to conduct segregation of dry and wet garbage and bioremediation of garbage in the city.

The MC has been making efforts for the past four years but did not succeed to sustain the bioremediation project at the Bhagtanwala dump. The Municipal Corporation (MC) had started the process in the first week of July. But after developing a technical snag in the machine, the process had to be stopped.

Now, the officials of the health wing of the MC claimed that the work would be resumed soon. Bioremediation is one of the major components of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had also directed the civic body to initiate bioremediation of garbage.

Similarly, the efforts made for the segregation of waste proved futile. The solid waste management company had distributed bins in some of the city areas to segregate the garbage separately. But, the residents didn’t adopt it. Now, the workers of the company segregate the garbage at door-to-door level and keep the recyclable goods separate.

Dr Ajay Kanwar, municipal health officer said, “We had started the bioremediation work at the Bhagtanwala dump recently. But the work has been stopped as machine got defunct. We will resume the bioremediation as soon as the machine gets repaired. The company workers segregate the garbage in 65 wards.”

The officials claimed that as soon as AVERDA Waste Management, a Dubai-based firm, will take over the Amritsar MSW Company Limited, the project would be fully functional. More machines would be brought to enhance the speed of the bioremediation.

Earlier, the MC officials had started the bioremediation plant twice, but the solid waste management company was facing financial constraints and this was the reason why the firm failed to implement it. Last year, a penalty of Rs 20 lakh was imposed by the NGT on MC for not following the guidelines of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. After that MC initiated the construction of a wall around the dump and claimed to develop a green belt by planting trees.

Bioremediation is a way to manage garbage. The machine crushes garbage and it automatically segregates plastic, debris, soil and manure. After bio-treatment, the garbage can be used as manure in fields. The plastic can be recycled. It is an eco-friendly and cost-effective method as compared to other traditional techniques.