Construction and demolition waste is still being dumped illegally in and around public places, despite BBMP’s rule against it.
Only 10 percent of the estimated 3,540 tonnes of Construction and demolition waste (CDW) generated per day in Bangalore enters Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) dumping sites, a study by Cstep found. While another 30% is used for levelling low-lying areas and land reclamation for future construction, and the remaining is unaccounted for and is dumped illegally, in and around roads and highways, wastelands, old lakes and valleys.
Dr. Jai Asundi, Executive Director at Cstep, and one of the formulators of the study said, “There’s only so much spaces where we can dump these wastes. We’ll run out of places. If it contains contamination, it will leech into ground water which is not good.”
BBMP came out with Solid Waste Management by-laws, for regulating construction and demolition waste. As per the rules, builders need to show waste disposal plan before remodeling or demolishing a building. No waste can be disposed off in authorized areas other than BBMP Designated CDW disposal sites.
Nagesh H., Nodal Officer and T.A. to Joint Commissioner, Solid Waste Management (SWM) department, BBMP, says that every zone has one supervisor and one Marshal, responsible for monitoring and collecting fines related to illegal dumping of waste. He said, “We are trying level best to impose rules. If anyone is disposing illegally, we’re imposing fines on them. Each marshal is collecting 3 lakh-10 lakh of fines every month.”
However, it becomes tough for a single marshal to cover the large area under each of BBMPs eight zones, which leads to a lack of monitoring. Manju Gagan, General Health Inspector, BBMP, Dasarhalli, said, “There will be only one marshal, they can’t cover the full area. No proper monitoring or management is happening. Rural areas with less development are areas where most of it is dumped.”
Nagesh H. further adds that there is currently only one named Rock & Crystals, with a capacity of 1,000 tonnes per day. Rajesh Kohar, who runs the plant said, “In a day we receive only 150-200 tonnes, even though we can see so much construction waste when we drive around Bengaluru. It is the profit, it is cheaper to dump in the nearest place. That is why so much construction waste is being generated.” [sic]
Ranganathan Kuntumalla, builder and owner at Raaga constructions, said, “It is a sorry state of affairs. There is no entry barrier for coming into construction business. They first don’t know how much of material is actually required for construction, which could’ve avoided this waste. They end up ordering extra, which forms debris and ends up in a landfill.”
Naturalist and environmentalist Ullaas Kumar said, “These things add up to the heating up of the atmosphere and causes a lot of damage to the lungs, aquatic life. It creates a choking effect on lakes. The people, who are building, need to transfer it to designated landfill and waste side and government should come up with more strict monitoring, that is the only solution.”
The waste blocks various roads and lake areas causing water pollution into massive waste at landfills, further causing soil pollution.
