The last two months have been very trying for Bharath (name changed) and his family with five members falling ill in a span of a few weeks. Since then, medicines for dengue, throat pain and skin allergies have been their staple supplement.
“We feel we are surviving because of medicines, not because of food. Every time, my mother or father coughs or sneezes, I worry if it’s an early sign of some sickness. Living in fear is more stressful than suffering from a disease,” says the 22-year-old resident of S. Bingipura.
A few streets away from Bharath’s house, lives Sundresh and his family, expressing similar fears. For nearly a year now, the family depends on tanker water for all their needs and even to meet their basic essentials.Most of the families in S.Bingipura have to buy water.
The garbage mismanagement at the landfill in S. Bingipura has adversely affected the lives of hundreds of villagers. Excess garbage dumping in the landfill, has led to ailments like dengue, malaria and skin allergies. In a double blow, the villagers have to also spend on medicines to stay fit, if not healthy, apart from shelling out money on basic needs like water.
And it’s not just their living conditions that worry Sundresh and many others in the village. The cattle, which earn them a portion of their livelihood, have been dying due to lack of water. Explains Sundresh, “There is no water fit for consumption for human begins, let alone animals. Though the Gram Panchayat buys water for us, it’s limited. We need to spend more to feed our cattle. The poor, who cannot afford it, have given up hope of cattle rearing as it has become so expensive. Where should we go if our livelihood is robbed from us?”
Says Deepa, wife of Sundresh, “On rainy days, we feel choked with the foul odour emanating from the garbage. Staying inside the house becomes difficult and children often go to sleep without eating. Not just that, we have even stopped walking on the road in the vicinity of the landfill.”
While adults are dealing with multiple problems, the school-going children too have been badly affected.
Deepa adds, “Since the landfill is located very close to the S.Bingipura government school, the students are getting breathing problems and skin allergies. They often complain of throat pain. As adults, we are strong enough to bear all this. But why are the kids being punished? Look what happened in Mandur, is the state government waiting for anything fatal to happen?”
The villagers demand that BBMP should immediately stop sending garbage trucks to the landfill.
Villagers’ protests ignored
The battle at Bingipura is not new to the BBMP. When the garbage crisis in the city became unmanageable and made international news, the BJP leaders in BBMP decided to set up a landfill close to the village of Bingipura. Within days, rocks were blasted and a 400-feet deep quarry pit was made ready to take the city’s muck. And when some villagers protested, the BJP leaders even ensured that they were put behind the bars.
Bharat, a businessman in Bingipura, recalled, “In 2011, when the BJP council first proposed to set up a landfill, we protested. When the protests intensified, the BBMP decided to arrest us. Many villagers backed off from protesting after they were lodged in Anekal police station. However, as a consolation, the BJP promised to do many things so that the garbage would not affect us.”
Back then, the BBMP promised to take up soil capping, spray chemicals and process the garbage regularly so that the garbage would not rot where it accumulated. However, after four years, the villagers are made to live amid rotting garbage.
Over the years, the garbage accumulation led to methane formation and fires breaking out in the ground became an everyday affair. “We can no longer live with the garbage dumping. Our lakes have become contaminated, we do not have potable water to drink and we are falling ill frequently,” he said.
Promises, promises, but garbage still here...
When the Mandur crisis snowballed last year, the state government seemed confident of tackling the situation and went on to say that by mid-2015, solid waste management would not be a problem in the city. It announced that six new garbage processing plants would be commissioned to reduce the burden on landfills. Despite the government’s mega plans to curb the garbage problem, it has failed to effectively dispose of garbage.
Presently, the city generates about 3,500 tonnes of garbage. The major processing units which treat the city’s garbage are Terra Firma and MSGP Infra Tech, which have a capacity to treat 1,000 and 700 tonnes of waste on a daily basis. These two are the only plants in the city which accept mixed waste and which segregate waste at the site.
Additionally, KCDC and Mavallipura plants treat 200 tonnes of wet waste. Altogether, about 2,100 tonnes of garbage are processed, while about 700 tonnes are sent to landfills in S.Bingipura and Lakshmipura. The remaining is left to rot.
To tackle the garbage problem, the BBMP has also set up dry waste collection centers in more than 150 wards, which have a receiving capacity of 1.5 tonnes of garbage per center.
Meanwhile, the BBMP even proposed to start 16 bio-methanisation plants across the city. While 10 are functional, the remaining are under construction. These waste-to-to-energy plants have a capacity of converting 5 tonnes of garbage into biogas. However, though they are functioning, BBMP sources say that these plants are poorly maintained.
All eyes on new plants
Although the BBMP has commissioned six new garbage processing plants in Kannenahalli, Seegehalli, Lingadeernahalli, Subbarayanapalya, Chikkanagamangala and Doddabidarakallu, not all are functioning. Following protests by locals near the plant in Lingadeernahalli, the BBMP has temporarily stalled the work here. While 500 tonnes of segregated garbage are processed in Kannenahalli, 200 tonnes of waste are processed in Seegehalli and Doddabidarakalli. The plants in Chikkanagamangala and Subbarayanapalya are yet to start functioning. And as per a BBMP official, all these plants may not be fully functional for the next two months.
“Each plant has adopted a different system and garbage is being sent to the new plants on an experimental basis. As of now, only 100 tonnes or 150 tonnes of garbage are sent to the plants. It will take at least two months for these plants to process waste in their full capacity. Until then, the garbage crisis may not be fully resolved,” a BBMP engineer said.
He added that the cost of running both the old and new plants may run up to Rs 25 crore annually.
