With the impasse at Chigarenahalli garbage processing plant refusing to let up and at least three other processing plants currently non-functional, the civic body is staring at a garbage crisis yet again. Since November 20, local communities at Chigarenahalli have barred trucks from dumping waste at the plant citing pollution of water sources and several violations. The Bagalur quarry pit, a new one, which is ready may be put to use any day now, but that may not be enough.
Though the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is confident of resolving the problem at Chigarenahalli, the protesters are adamant that they won’t let a single truck into the quarry. “We are tired of the empty promises the Government keeps making. BBMP claims they have spent ₹200 crore on development works in our villages as compensation. But we don’t see that. We are also demanding that the Anti Corruption Bureau take up a probe into this,” said Siddalingappa, president, Bhaktarahalli Gram Panchayat.
The matter was recently discussed at the ongoing winter session of the Karnataka Assembly in Belagavi where Law Minister J.C. Madhuswamy promised a meeting with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who also holds charge of the city.
BBMP officials have decided not to dump waste at Chigarenahalli till the meeting.
While Mr. Madhuswamy refused to commit that they would stop dumping waste, Congress MLA Krishna Byre Gowda suggested that the civic body dump it in an empty quarry pit instead.
“It’s not that dumping in a quarry pit is acceptable, but that is at least better than this,” he said. The Bagalur quarry pit now readied, is in his constituency.
Before the protests, the Chigarenahalli plant was taking 500 tonnes per day (TPD) of waste from Bengaluru. Since November 20, the city’s detritus has been diverted to the quarry at Mittaganahall. The quarry, which is now receiving around 3,000 TPD of waste, is also filling up fast.
What has compounded the problem is that at least three plants - Subbarayanapalya, Seegehalli and Lingadheeranahalli - have not been functioning for nearly two years due to local protests and legal tangles in the National Green Tribunal (NGT). Most of the other plants - Chikkanagamangala, Doddabidarakallu, KCDC and Kannahalli - are also not functioning to their full capacity.
As a result, segregation of waste, which has been stagnating at around 40% for years, is also not being leveraged for processing. While the BBMP collects over 1,200 TPD of segregated wet waste, only around 700 TPD is processed at the plants at present. The remaining 500 TPD is being dumped at landfills.
“We are trying to revive all the plants that have recently been stopped. We are trying our best to not start a new quarry. But the quarry at Bagalur is ready to go and we can start dumping waste in a day’s time,” said Sarfaraz Khan, Joint Commissioner, Solid Waste Management, BBMP. It may not be smooth sailing, as local communities around the non-functional plants are also opposed to the BBMP restarting them.
If the civic body fails to resolve the impasse over Chigarenahalli and the three waste processing plants, starting dumping waste at a new quarry will soon be inevitable.
(This is the first of a two-part series on solid waste management problems that the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike is facing)
