Proposal for new dumping yards put on hold

The proposal to mark out new dumping yards for the city’s garbage has been put on hold due to resistance from locals. An official of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation said that though the revenue department was ready to hand over land for the yards at four locations away from the city, public representatives and locals feared that the sites could become like Jawharnagar and were resisting the proposals.

The Jawaharnagar dumping yard has been a topic of controversy from a long time. Residents have been complaining about the unbearable stench that emanates from the yard, and leachate from the garbage had affected groundwater.

The GHMC had propoposed to set up a 44-acre dumping yard in Talakondapally, a 159-acre yard in Keshavpet and an 80-acre yard in Rameshwaram Banda. The corporation had identified a site in Jinnaram for the fourth dumping yard.

The GHMC had planned to decentralise the dumping process. When officials made site inspections, they faced severe public resistance. Against the background, the corporation has put the process on hold temporarily and asked officials to convince people. 

A GHMC official said the the sites had been chosen in keeping with the solid waste management rules of 2016, and taking up to 25 parameters into consideration.

The sites should also satisfy certain geological criteria so that pollutants do not contaminate the groundwater in the spot and the surrounding areas.