The
Indian Express: Pune: Tuesday, 15 September 2015.
When it comes
to handling of municipal solid waste (MSW), the Pimpri-Chinhchwad Municipal
Corporation (PCMC) claims it is doing a better job than Pune Municipal
Corporation (PMC). However, the Moshi landfill site speaks poorly of PCMC’s
apathy towards keeping it in perfect order.
The landfill
site might not have seen villagers protesting like the Urali Devachi site of
PMC, but now serious concerns are being raised over the way the site is being
run.
RTI documents
accessed by The Indian Express from the General Administration Department (GAD)
shows that Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Institute (NERI) had
raised serious concerns over the compost quality of Moshi site and had termed
its usage as “hazardous.”
Spread over
81 acres of land in Moshi, the landfill site deals with 450 metric tonnes of MSW
on a daily basis.
Of this, 425
metric tonnes of waste is composted through mechanical composting while 30
metric tonnes is treated through vermi composting. The compost so generated is
disposed of by the private party who operates the plant.
According to
Sanjay Kulkarni, environmental engineer with the PCMC, the manure is disposed
of by the plant operator and also given to farmers free of cost.
NERI, which was asked by the PCMC to do an
in-depth study of the Moshi facility, had highlighted multiple issues in its
report. Not only did the study find the compost unsuitable on its Carbon to
Nitrogen (C:N) ratio, but also the manure was found to be heavy in in mercury
and other heavy metals. “The heavy metals such as Mercury (Hg) should be absent
from the compost, where as the processed compost has Mercury content of 16
mg/Kg of compost, hence this material may be hazardous to be used as manure,”
the report said.
According to
the World Health Organisation (WHO), exposure of Mercury, even in small forms,
can cause serious health hazards.
The metal is
known to affect nervous, digestive and immune system, besides affecting skin,
eyes and kidneys.
While the
NERI report talks of the presence of mercury in compost, Kulkarni said the
manure’s quality was good.
“The manure
has been tested and it has not been found to be dangerous. We regularly check
the quality of the manure,” he said.
BJP MLA
Laxman Jagtap blamed the PCMC for failing to run the plant well. “The civic
body has intentionally turned a blind eye on the running of the biomechanical
composting plant. Presence of mercury is clear indication that the plant is at
fault,” he said.
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