Bhopal reclaimed 37acres of wasteland by clearing legacy waste The Cleanest Cities of India

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zafar

02 Mar 2022

According to government data, there are more than 3,000 dumpsites in India that need to be reclaimed or closed permanently. And one of the best models to remediate these dumpsites can be found in Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh. Bhopal has reclaimed 37 acres of land which was once a dumpsite for the entire city. Waste was dumped in this area for over 30 years and contained over 7.5 Lakh Tonnes of legacy waste. So, How did Bhopal do it? Bhopal is known as “the City of Lakes”. It is a city steeped in heritage. A city that is a delight for food lovers. But what is little known is that Bhopal is also a city with a robust waste management system. But this city, which generates around 800 tonnes of Municipal solid waste every day was not clean like it is today. Till 2017 Bhopal did not segregate its waste. This unsegregated waste used to end up at a 37-acre dump site at a place called Bhanpur Khanti. This dumpsite has been in existence for more than 30 years and in this period accumulated over 7.5 Lakh tonnes of legacy waste resembling a small hillock filled with rotting garbage. As the dumpsite became a major environmental hazard for the people of Bhopal, The Bhopal Municipal Corporation decided to take action. In 2018, BMC decided that a public-private partnership was the way to resolve the dumpsite problem in Bhanpur Khanti. ‘Saurashtra Enviro Projects Pvt Ltd’ a company involved in Municipal Solid Waste Management Processing was selected as the concessionaire to carry out bioremediation. Saurashtra began their work by preplanning every detail of the project. A thorough, topographical survey including taking measurements of the depth of MSW below the ground and physiochemical characterization of the dumpsite was carried out. BMC and the concessionaire then chose a unique hybrid model of Bio Mining and Bio capping to carry out the remediation process. Out of the 37 acres of land, 21 acres was to be recovered through biomining and the rest 16 acres was decided to be capped. A total of 1.8 Lakh tonnes of waste was recovered using biomining. The next step was to deal with the rest of the waste by using the method of bio capping. After digging the land, a layer of high-density polythene liner was placed, over which a trapezoidal waste structure is made as a part of the capping process. The treatment of leachate and the gases that emerge from the dumpsite is also important during the capping process. And today, after 3 years of back-breaking work, this is how Bhanpur Khanti looks. The 37-acre of land in Bhanpur has been reclaimed and 16 acres of this has been developed into a green area. The BMC is now planning to commercially use this reclaimed land. But for Bhopal getting rid of this eyesore was just the beginning. Today, Bhopal employs source segregation practices including door-to-door segregation. It is also promoting decentralised solutions like home composting across the city to further strengthen its waste management system. They also use GPS based tracking technologies to ensure that waste gets collected, segregated and processed every step. Bhopal has set a model for the rest of the country. It has shown that legacy waste in dump yards can be effectively remediated using appropriate technology solutions. It could become a model for the remediation of the 3000 odd dumpsites in cities across the country.