BHUBANESWAR: The proposed Regional Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Management facility at Bhuasuni on outskirts of the Capital City continues to be a major headache for the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUDD). Besides facing undue delay, the facility is now bogged down by technology and processing methods of solid waste. Going by the Request for Proposal (RFP) floated by the HUDD for the MSW, a suitable ‘processing technology’ must be used for treating bio-degradable, combustible and recyclable contents of the solid waste. This indicates that before the waste goes for treatment, the three categories of waste should be segregated and treated separately.
The Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 states that the waste has to be segregated at source into three parts - wet (biodegradable), dry (plastic, paper, metal, wood, etc) and domestic hazardous (diapers, napkins, empty containers of cleaning agents, mosquito repellents, etc). The generators should hand over segregated wastes to authorised rag-pickers or waste collectors or local bodies.
Municipal corporations of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack have not taken steps to ensure segregation of waste either at source or temporary transit stations or the dumping yard. The collective treatment of different categories of waste is not only unscientific but also high on pollution.
Contacted, Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) officials could not present a clear picture on where and by whom the segregation of wet, dry and hazardous substances should be done. “Once commissioned, the plant will produce 11.5 mw of electricity from solid waste. The segregation will be done during the process,” said Rajiv Kumar, member secretary, OSPCB.
Over a period of time, the Design Built Finance Operate Transfer (DBFOT) project has been changed from ROCHEM technology to HITCHI Zosen technology to be used for treating solid waste and generating energy from it. Meanwhile, the budget estimate has gone up by five folds upto `250 crore.
On the other hand, the residents of Daruthenga panchayat have moved the Orissa High Court (HC) challenging the disposal of solid waste at the dumping site in Bhuasuni. The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has also filed a caveat before the HC and is searching for an alternative site for solid waste disposal, sources said.
BMC Commissioner Dr Krishan Kumar said total segregation of three categories of waste is not practical. The waste segregation, he said, is better done at source.
Garbage woes
Once commissioned, the plant will produce 11.5 mw of electricity from solid waste. The segregation will be done during the process Rajiv Kumar, Member Secretary of OSPCB