12 Kolkata: To prevent a Howrah's Belgachhia-like disaster at Dhapa, the city's sole municipal solid waste dumpsite that also accommodates the waste of Salt Lake, New Town and Howrah, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) needs to set up more garbage recycling plants to take the load off the dumping yard, mayor Firhad Hakim said on Thursday after leading a civic delegation to inspect the core area of the dumping ground.
According to a KMC official, the civic body's solid waste management department currently has the capacity to utilise 1,500 tonne of waste to produce fertiliser, CNG, plastic furniture, and so on. The KMC has set a target to augment the capacity to 2,500 tonne by expanding the facility. However, to set up new recycling facilities, the KMC needs to acquire a 73-hectare land located adjacent to the present dumping ground. Attempts in this direction have remained unsuccessful for want of funds, said a civic official.
Overburdened with growing waste, Dhapa dumping ground is on the verge of collapse, the official said. Kolkata's solitary wasteland, which started operations in 1987 with a capacity of handling 2,500 tonne of waste daily, is now compelled to accommodate 5,000 tonne every day. Now that the KMC is forced to take another 300 tonne of garbage from Howrah, civic engineers have sounded an alert that a disaster, much bigger than Belgachhia, Howrah, is waiting to happen at Dhapa.
"We have prepared a report on the vulnerability of Dhapa dumping ground and sent it to the state govt, making it clear that a disaster is waiting to happen if we waste time in the acquisition of land and construction of the landfill site," said a KMC official.
The extraction of legacy waste has also come to a halt as the contract of the private agency responsible for the job was terminated because it failed to meet the deadline.