Kashmir Monitor: Srinagar: Thursday, December 28, 2017.
The Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) improperly dumps tons of non-vegetarian waste generated in the city daily in absence of an alternative method.
Against ideally managing the non-veg waste through a Bio-methanation plant, the J&;K State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), in reply to a Right to Information (RTI) application recently, has revealed that the waste was being currently dumped into the Achan landfill site.
“No biodegradable waste should go to the landfill site,” the SPCB has recommended in its reply to the RTI application.
“The waste generated from Srinagar city including both biodegradable and non-biodegradable are being transported to the sanitary landfill site without any prior segregation…,” the board has said.
While no health hazard was reported due to the non-veg waste being dumped into the landfill site so far, an insider from the SPCB said the long term effects of the procedure could not be predicted.
Over a threat of any possible health hazard, the official said, “Nothing has happened as such. There was no alternative available.”
Referring to the Srinagar Municipal Corporation, he said, “They have to find an alternative, the sooner the better.”
Solid Waste Management Officer SMC, Nazir Ahmad Baba, told The Kashmir Monitor that a high level committee had recently found that the Bio-methanation plant was “not feasible” in Kashmir due to low temperatures here.
The committee, he said, had members from bodies including the Central Pollution Control Board, union Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change and Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUDD) J&K besides Commissioner SMC.
“They said the plant was not feasible here as it requires a temperature of over 50 degree Celsius,” Baba added.
The SMC recently said that Srinagar produces 40,000 kilogram of non-vegetarian waste daily on an average.
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