One on One | Shyam Sunder Aggarwal, Mayor, EDMC
Waste management has been a point of concern for the local administration of Delhi for a long time and it is growing with every passing day. The three landfill sites of Bhalswa, Okhla and Ghazipur had breached their carrying capacity in 2008. Additionally, these landfill sites are not built according to specifications prescribed under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. In addition to that, the problem of electronic waste is also raising its head. Considering the ever-growing problem of waste management, Pooja Upadhyay, Reporter, Urban Update interviewed Shyam Sunder Aggarwal, Mayor, East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), to know more about the region and his views on the merger of three municipal corporations of Delhi Excerpts from the interview…………
Waste management: Balance of both community and administration Currently, under the jurisdiction of EDMC, 2600 tonnes of waste is generated every day out of which only 1300 tonnes is processed in the plant at Ghazipur and the proposal made by EDMC to install a new waste processing plant near the Yamuna has been halted by National Green Tribunal (NGT). So, how are you planning to address this problem of shortage of land for waste management in your area?
I think you are a little short on the information. We collect waste from every household. In our area, 2000 – 2100 tonne of waste is generated every day, which is sent to the Ghazipur landfill site. Earlier we used to have garbage piled up on the roads but we have done significant work to address this problem. We have closed nearly 140 landfill sites. Earlier the garbage used to drop from the trucks
36 May 2022 | www.urbanupdate.in
during transportation but now these carrier trucks are closed and garbage is directly dumped into it and later compacted. As far as the processing of waste is concerned, we have called for proposals to process 50 lakhs tonnes of waste and it will be given to the lowest bidder. Right now, we have 25 trommel machines out of which 18 are old and seven are new. Moreover, 10 new machines will be added soon which will have six times more capacity than the old ones. Through these machines, we will be able to do away with an average of 9000 tonnes of waste every day, and in two and a half years, 83 lakhs tonnes of waste will be processed. Right now, 132 lakh tonnes of waste is stored in the landfill sites and we are targeting 133 lakh tonne of waste disposal by December 2024. We have asked for 12 acres of land to store fresh waste collected by the EDMC as fresh waste cannot be processed.
