Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Friday admitted that the situation at Dhapa landfill site cannot be said to be “safe” while assuring that the civic body is working towards restarting biomining of waste soon.
On Friday, councillor Biswarup Dey questioned that following the explosion and landslide at the Belgachia dumping site in Howrah, how safe is the Dhapa landfill site in Kolkata. He sought to know how the pressure at Dhapa landfill site, which has crossed its saturation point, can be dealt with so as to avoid any such explosions caused by methane gas. The member mayor-in-council (MMIC), solid waste management department, Debabrata Majumder that all is not well at Dhapa. He claimed that the Dhapa ground is not a scientific landfill site. Even as it is not in a vulnerable condition as that of Howrah’s Belgachia, pressure is increasing at Dhapa due to dumping from adjoining municipalities.
Mazumdar said that the civic body is soon looking for a scientific landfill to take the load off Dhapa. He reiterated that a land beside the dumping ground has been identified for the same. The MMIC shared that the agency which was appointed for biomining the waste at Dhapa had yielded unsatisfactory results. Hence, a tender has been floated to soon appoint a new agency which would execute biomining there. This will help reduce the garbage load. He further added that one of the biggest solutions to the existing problem at the Dhapa landfill is the waste segregation at source. He appealed to all councillors to ensure waste segregation at their respective wards.
In a bid to tackle the random fire erupting from the garbage heaps at the Dhapa landfill facility due to build up of methane gas, KMC is spending Rs 21 lakh for water sprinkler vans while taking measures to process and recycle the tonnes of waste dumped. The mayor Firhad Hakim recently visited the landfill site for inspection. He had shared that a 100-tonne material recovery facility at Dhapa will help in waste segregation. This will also help in obtaining refuse derived fuel (RDF) from the non-recyclable waste.