The mountains of garbage at the Bhalswa and Okhla landfill sites, which are being used well past their intended lifespans, would soon be “greened”, a statement from the office of Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal said on Thursday.
At a meeting chaired by Mr. Baijal and attended by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, officials of the municipal corporations, government departments and experts from the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, discussed the way forward for Delhi’s solid waste management problem.
The meeting was the third one chaired by Mr. Baijal after a collapse at the Ghazipur landfill in east Delhi on September 1 led to the death of two people.
Using garbage
As per the statement, Mr. Baijal discussed the solutions for all three landfills in Delhi. In case of Ghazipur, the East Delhi Municipal Corporation and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) already have a plan to use the garbage for the construction of roads.
The NHAI would begin picking up garbage from Ghazipur in mid-November, the statement said.
“In deliberations about the mounds at Bhalswa and Okhla landfill sites, it was decided to undertake their greening after grading their slopes in an engineered manner,” the statement read.
Earlier in the meeting, Professor Manoj Datta of the Department of Civil Engineering, IIT-Delhi gave a presentation on the issues, including the reasons for instability of landfills. He also said that the stability could be increased by flattening the slopes, strengthening the top and removing leachate and gas.
With the garbage on the landfills, particularly Bhalswa and Ghazipur, catching fire frequently, the solution of collection and flaring of methane was also discussed.
Though the Ghazipur landfill has a waste-to-energy plant attached as well as a gas capture facility, it saw the tragedy on September 1, when a large chunk collapsed.