NEW DELHI: As air quality in Gurgaon remains poor, residents say that much pollution results from rampant open waste burning in public areas. Open fires from burning garbage have been observed across the city, with one blaze in Sector 10 last month requiring 20 minutes to be extinguished after fire officials stepped in due to a lack of response from the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG).
Residents report that, despite complaints to the pollution control board, waste burning continues unchecked in areas such as DLF-2, IFFCO Chowk, Udyog Vihar, and Sector 31, often due to actions by local shopkeepers and sanitation workers.
The state’s Urban Local Bodies (ULB) department has called out local agencies for insufficient action against municipal solid waste (MSW) burning, describing it as a compliance failure and a violation of the state’s comprehensive air quality management system (CAQMS).
In response, the ULB mandated that civic bodies file reports on enforcement efforts by Friday. Since mid-October, MCG has issued penalties amounting to Rs 35,000 for seven waste-burning violations, under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). The MCG has also warned senior officials of accountability measures if they fail to act, and it has encouraged residents to report such incidents directly.
At the root of the problem is the city’s solid waste management, which emphasises removing waste from public areas more than reducing and segregating waste at the source.
According to experts, the focus has remained on the transportation of waste rather than its disposal. Even the authorities give contract for the waste lifting and transportation and agencies which receive the tender get paid according to the weight of the waste lifted.
Another reason behind the burning is to illegally dispose of the factory or hazardous waste that gets rejected at the landfill sites. Several waste lifting agencies take money from these factories to lift their waste, which is at times hazardous, and dump at the area, where regular waste is already piled up. At times, this waste is dumped in an empty area. It is then mixed with the regular waste and burned to escape the eye of authorities, ignoring the fact that the hazardous waste burned can lead to health issues for the people residing near the area.
In an interview with Ruchika Sethi of Citizens for Clean Air, who advocates for more sustainable waste management practices in Gurgaon, Prabhat Shukla discusses the most pressing issue and possible solutions. Excerpts.
What is the current waste management system in Gurgaon?
Primarily, the focus has been on engaging the sanitation workers and pick-up trucks and transporting the waste from one spot to the other. For this, the contracts were awarded. In 2017, the MCG awarded contracts to waste-to-energy companies that are based on burn technology. The entire waste contract model was based on a tipping fee model. The MCG pays for the door-to-door collection and transportation of waste from smaller agencies that take it to secondary dumping points called ‘Khattas’ or informal Garbage Vulnerable Points. From here, waste is loaded onto bigger trucks by JCBs and taken to the Bhanwari Landfill site. These agencies are paid by how much they offload in weight.
What exactly is the issue with this system?
There is an inherent flaw with this system. Waste management rules say that waste needs to be processed. If you leave waste as it is, it will rot and stench. But if agencies are getting paid for dumping waste at one point, there is absolutely no incentive for them to segregate waste as they don’t get any money from it.
Where is waste frequent burned?
There multiple areas. First is at the small scrap dealers who burn plastic. The second is horticulture waste fires from trimming of tree branches and hedges collected by tractors into large heaps. Thirdly, waste is burned at a large scale at the Khattas.
What is the incentive for burning waste?
I believe they resort to burning to hide the fact that industrial waste has been mixed into regular waste from households. This is because the landfill sites cannot receive anything that is highly inflammable. Collection agencies take money from factories in industrial zones and dump their waste at Khattas.