Garbage menace: Why should urban planners in India take the Court observations seriously?

Garbage dumping yards are piling up across the country. Our municipal bodies are dumping the solid wastes irresponsibly, and most of the times illegally, in such dumping grounds and many other open places including river beds, flood plains, abandoned water bodies, crop fields and nearby villages

On the 6^th of August, the Supreme Court (SC) was found quite infuriated by the fact that the East Delhi Municipal Corporation had identified a garbage dumping site in Sonia Vihar, allegedly without taking consent of the local residents. In fact, the SC bench of Justice M B Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta made a rather scathing remark while hearing a case in this regard as it said, “Just because underprivileged persons are staying there (in Sonia Vihar), it does not mean you can dump garbage in front of their houses. Try dumping it outside (L-G’s residence) Raj Niwas or in this area (NDMC).”

This remark comes within a month of another such strong remark by the SC on Delhi’s ever increasing garbage menace. On July 10, the SC had said how Delhi was being buried under “mountains of garbage” and that the government was doing nothing. Just about three and a half months before that, on March 27, it had said how the Ghazipur landfill site in Delhi would soon match the height of the iconic Qutub Minar and that red beacon lights might have to be used to ward off aircrafts flying that way. The Qutub Minar is about 73-metre high. 

The SC has been constantly slamming the Lieutenant Governor (LG) of complacency in this regard.

During the recent hearing, the SC said that Delhi was facing almost an “emergency situation.” The city generates 3,600 tonnes of solid waste every day and it was facing an “emergency situation” as a result.

The court observed, “We are in an emergency situation and unfortunately, your response is not. As per a hospital report, 50 per cent of Delhi citizens are susceptible to lung cancer even without smoking. NITI Aayog report says Delhi will have no water by 2020. At least 50 per cent of citizens will leave because of this.”

Delhi’s garbage menace came to national and international limelight in September last year when collapse – owing to incessant rains – of Gaziapur landfill, one of the biggest landfills of the city, swept many people into nearby canals, killed two people and spread polluted water in a huge area. According to some reports, dumping in this landfill site should have stopped fifteen years ago when the piled garbage reached about 20 metres high. However, when it collapsed, the height of the mount was more than 50 metres. 

Increasing pollution load

Delhi is not alone. Mumbai has also been in news for problems concerning garbage management. Mumbai, as per government data, is the largest waste generator among Indian cities during the last more than one and half decade period. According to the data published in EnviStats 2018 from the Central Statistics Office, the city’s wastes have grown by about 105 times in 17 years between 1999 and 2016. The city now generates about 11,000 tonnes per day (TPD) as against the 5,355 TPD it was generating in 1999. Interestingly, Delhi generates 8700 TPD wastes each day, that’s almost two and half times more than the figure the SC bench mentioned about. So, Delhi’s “garbage emergency” is much worse than the SC currently envisages. 

Garbage dumping yards are piling up across the country. Our municipal bodies are dumping the solid wastes irresponsibly, and most of the times illegally, in such dumping grounds and many other open places including river beds, flood plains, abandoned water bodies, crop fields and nearby villages. Data from government sources put it that Indian cities generate around 1.43 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of garbage daily, of which, barely a quarter – that is about 35,600 MT – is being processed. Garbage dumped in the open does not only spread stinky smells but pollutes the nearby soil, air, surface water bodies and ground water sources. Open garbage dumping has also several negative health implications.

Groundwater contamination

Recently, the government revealed to the Parliament that groundwater in more than 50 percent districts of India are facing high level of contamination by toxic elements such as nitrate, fluoride, arsenic, iron and heavy metals. While groundwater in 386 districts was found with presence of excess nitrate, that in 335 districts was found with fluoride contamination, 301 with iron, 212 with salinity, 153 with arsenic, 93 with lead, 30 with chromium and 24 with cadmium contamination. Landfills are among the major sources of such contamination, the government admitted. 

Municipal landfills as well as illegal dumping of garbage on the roadsides and other areas put our groundwater resources at severe risk. The wastes contain several types of synthetic materials including plastics, oils, pesticides and solvents.

All of these can go down the ground as pollutants. According to the International Association of Hydrological Sciences, toxic leachates from landfills are among the major groundwater quality risks.

Many of these pollutants can cause health risks such as nervous system disorders, kidney and liver ailments, intestinal and stomach distress, anaemia, cancer, damage of reproductive systems, damage of lungs and bones, high blood pressure, changes in blood-glucose levels and cholesterol levels, so on and so forth. That’s perhaps the reason we are witnessing manifold increase in such diseases in the society.

Equality in city governance

The recent SC judgement has another strong message for urban planners. It has shown the mirror to the governments about the inherent discriminatory practices they follow in garbage dumping, by taking poor and underprivileged people for granted. The court categorically mentioned that the urban bodies cannot dump wastes near the habitations of the underprivileged people and that the rich people should start segregating their wastes. This speaks of the reality that exists in India’s urban spaces. The poor, slum dwellers and even lower middle class people have to bear the stink, pollution and inconvenience of solid waste generated by the entire city. There exists a clear distinction of treatment meted out to the informal settlements and walled settlements. 

The rich generates more wastes due to the high standard of lifestyle – often wasteful – they maintain.  It is the responsibility of the urban local bodies to take initiatives to involve the rich in segregating, reusing and proper disposal of wastes. Cities are already finding it difficult to get lands for landfill sites, therefore, segregation and recycling is a sine qua non.  More than 75 percent garbage is recyclable and can generate livelihoods for millions of rag pickers. This needs to be integrated in urban planning. 

Urban local bodies must go for sanitary landfills and prevent pollution of soil, air and water bodies including groundwater resources. This SC case should be an eye opener and pointer to more such litigations to come. The urban planners need to notice this with all seriousness and must go for sustainable waste management practices and inclusive cities.

This article was first published in Urban Update