For three years, no change in capping at Jawahar nagar dumping yard in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: As the stinking garbage pile at the Jawahar nagar dumping yard continues to grow by 4,000 tonnes of waste every day, slowly destroying the environment, those responsible for ensuring scientific disposal of garbage and management of leachate at the site are throwing their hands up.

Officials from the Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB), Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and Ramky Group, which has a contract to treat the garbage, did not respond to questions from Deccan Chronicle.

For two years, PCB and GHMC officials kept providing a stock answer that 30 per cent capping was done at the dumping yard. Capping is a scientific method by which the garbage is covered in such a way that the leachate — the fluid from rotting garbage — does not get into the ground.

Asked why the capping had not progressed further, an official at the PCB’s Ranga Reddy district office said, “We can only give directions to the Ramky Group to finish the works quickly. We have been issuing directions,” he said.

The executive engineer of the GHMC’s solid waste management division refused to comment. Senior officials of the corporation’s sanitation department were unreachable.

A senior Ramky executive did not explain why the capping was being delayed. “We have called for services of two experts from United Kingdom and from IIT Delhi. The capping work will start soon.”