A garbage dump at Bhuasuni. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 25: The stink emitting from the garbage dump yard at Bhuasuni has made life unbearable for the residents of Daruthengha village on the outskirts of the city.

The garbage is contaminating the underground water sources in the area. Villagers claimed that five cows died last month after drinking the water.

Though the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation chose Bhuasuni for dumping the city garbage nearly two years ago, its workers have been careless about the use of landfills created at the site. A lot of refuse is invariably left in the open, posing a threat to the villagers’ health. The 66-acre dump yard is across the road from the village.

The corporation has also proposed to put up a solid waste treatment plant at the site. However, the project has not gone beyond the stage of floating of tenders.

“Despite our protests, the civic authorities turned this place into a garbage dump yard. There is also no progress on the proposed waste treatment plant,” said villager Pradipta Kumar Behera.

Around 450 metric tonnes of waste are dumped at Bhuasuni. The corporation workers hardly ever cover the garbage with sand or red soil as required. Also, there are two earthmovers at the site for transferring the garbage into the landfills.

The civic authorities have erected a boundary wall around the dump yard. Similarly, work on the garbage treatment plant project to be set up with an investment of nearly Rs 46 lakh in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode had not made much progress. The project is expected to treat nearly 700 metric tones of solid waste a day.

The civic body had floated the tender for which technical expertise was provided by the Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation.

“The solid waste treatment plant will be set up soon. We have already floated an expression of interest for the plant,” said commissioner of the municipal corporation Vishal Kumar Dev.

The proposed solid waste management system would ensure improved collection and transport system. The private operator and the municipal corporation could also benefit from the sale of recyclable wastes generated at the transit transportation stations and the compost generated from the plant.

Sources said the corporation covered 135sqkm over 60 wards with a population of around 10 lakh from 2,36,231 households.

Of the 440 tonnes of waste, the components are: domestic 252.39 tonnes, institutional 24.46 tonnes, commercial 139.22 tonnes, street sweeping 2.2 tonnes, construction demolition debris 17.42 tonnes and biomedical wastes 4.31 tonnes. Out of these, 325.41 tonnes are biodegradable and 90.66 tonnes, non-biodegradable waste.