Gurugram: Groundwater samples taken from Bandhwari landfill site

Gurugram, January 21

A joint panel of the Municipal Corporation Gurugram and the Haryana State Pollution Control Board comprising five members has collected at least four samples of groundwater at Bandhwari village, the Joint Commissioner (Swachh Bharat Mission) of the MC Naresh Kumar confirmed here today.

The joint committee was formed after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed the local civic body on January 9 to constitute a panel to check groundwater contamination and health condition of the local residents at Bandhwari and in adjoining villages.

A few more samples of underground water will also be collected from other nearby villages in the coming days. The test reports of these samples will be submitted to the NGT latest by February 22, the next date of hearing.

Since the garbage waste of Gurugram and Faridabad districts is being dumped at the landfill site in the Bandhwari revenue area for the past about 15 years, the local residents have been regularly complaining of the seepage of leachate from the landfill, leading to contamination of groundwater impacting their health.

The residents of at least four other nearby villages (Balola, Baliawas, Gwalpahari and Mangar) have also complained of similar problems.

Former Sarpanch of Bandhwari village Raja Ram, who approached the NGT demanding the closure of garbage dumping in his village, told The Tribune that leachete from the dumping site was continuously affecting the nearby areas. The private companies engaged at the landfill site were not disposing off the garbage scientifically, thus posing a threat to the environment in the Aravallis and those living in nearby villages, he alleged.

Raja Ram said hundreds of local residents had migrated to other places due to this menace.