Supreme Court of India(SCI) tells Delhi to clean up its garbage mountains Monday Oct 17,2016

Delhi is facing an impending disaster, the Supreme Court of India(SCI) said on Monday Oct 17,2016, as it warned civic agencies to tackle the mountains of trash at dumping grounds in the Capital to check the spread of vector-borne diseases.

Asking why garbage was still being piled on landfill sites that have already reached saturation point, the court said, "people are dying are you aware of that? It is a health  hazard...very very serious health hazard".

The  SCI’s comments came during the hearing of a PIL seeking urgent long-term measures to control the spread of vector-borne diseases like dengue and chikungunya, which is a recurring problem every year due to apathy and lack of preparedness by various civic authorities

A Bench of justices Madan B Lokur and Adarsh Kumar Goel had asked the three municipal corporations, the Delhi Government and the Centre to ensure that garbage piles on roadsides and dumps are promptly cleared.

The three present landfill sites at Ghazipur, Bhalswa and Okhla are already overflowing.

The situation is set to become scarier as the daily release of garbage is expected to jump to 18,000 tonnes by 2021, up from the present 10,000 tonnes per day, a Delhi High Court appointed panel had said recently.

Despite the expected rise, no alternative site for landfill has been provided and no concrete steps have been taken to recycle the waste.

SC said on February 2, 2000: "We direct that sites for landfills will be identified bearing in mind the requirement of Delhi for the next twenty years within a period of four weeks from today".

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar told the court they are taking steps for timely clearance of the garbage, but Justice Lokur asked, "Everything is fine but after collecting the garbage where do you keep it?"

The SC is unhappy with the state of the landfill sites as they pose a health risk to residents in nearby areas.

The sites at Ghazipur and Bhalswa are notorious for spewing toxic gases, leading to illnesses.

The two sites also had to battle several blazes in the summer, with putrid stench and thick plumes of smoke enveloping nearby areas.

Delhi government told the court that it was identifying new spots as the present ones had reached saturation point and were also considering several alternative waste disposal mechanisms.

The SCI has sought details of the steps the government will take next Friday. The way out could be to find alternative sites to dump the city’s daily garbage of 10,000 tonnes as well as to process the waste efficiently, so that 80 per cent of it can be converted into energy or compost or any other useful by-product.

One recycling plant under each corporation at present has failed to handle the load. 

Municipal Corporations in Delhi continue to dump at these three saturated sites ignoring a Delhi Pollution Control Committee ban imposed five years ago.

As a result, the peripheries of these three sites are getting illegally enlarged, posing serious health hazards for residents in the vicinity.

The three corporations accuse the DDA of not providing them alternative land despite an order of the Supreme Court 14 years ago and repeated in 2010 terming the situation “alarming.”

A Delhi HC committee’s report says a minimum of 650 acres of land, which is practically impossible given the acute scarcity of land in the Capital, is required to manage waste efficiently for the next 10 years.