Click to play videoNew Delhi: As part of CNN-IBN's special series in the run-up to Delhi elections, we look at the problem of garbage. How is Delhi dealing with its mounting pile of waste and is the rising stink goading political action? Read on...
It's not the usual chuck it, forget it routine in this house. Mrs Bhagat's morning ritual includes carefully separating her garbage - a separate bin for degradable waste and another one for non-bio degradables.
A handful of colonies in central Delhi, go through this process every morning, as part of an initiative set up by the Delhi government in order to segregate the waste at the household level itself. But this could well be a wasted effort.
"We want zero waste in our colony so what we are trying to do is segregate. We have garbage collectors who come. They also segregate, but the truck that comes from DWM puts together everything so half the effort is gone," she says.
The result is that non-biodegradable untreated waste dumped in open spaces, leaching toxins into the air and groundwater. Officials say they are aware of the problem.
NDMC Health Officer, P K Sharma says, "We are trying to take garbage separately. For horticulture waste or green waste, we have deployed our own trucks. They will take it to compost plants."
Delhi generates more than 6,500 metric tonnes of garbage every day. Ghazipur, one of the four landfills in the Capital, is already overflowing with garbage - 80 feet above the ground and still rising.
It's now a frenzied quest to find a fifth dumping ground. If MCD has its way then 6,000 acreas of forested area, situated on the Delhi border, could soon become a dumping zone. It's latest proposal is to convert part of the flora-rich Asola Bhatti into a landfill. A proposal that's already raising a stink among citizens.
Member of the NGO Toxic Links, Tariq says, "The government should identify some new, appropriate technology that maybe a proper solution. A landfill is not the proper and solution to waste."
Despite initiatives like privatising garbage collection and disposal - and more recently door-to-door collection of garbage in two areas - the current government still seems to be grappling with the soild waste problem.
The other chief ministerial candidate, BJP's V K Malhotra has proposed a solution saying, "Corporations are doing solid waste management in a big way and are producing electricity out of it. It will be done in a scientific way so that not much land will be needed."
These are just big plans from the political leaders, but If estimates are right, Delhi will be producing 20,000 metric tonnes of waste a day in a few years.
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