South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has moved at a faster pace in converting over saturated Okhla landfill into a lush green area. The landfill was quite an eyesore as the mound of garbage has crossed over 50 meters in height in place of the permissible 20 metres. SDMC top brass decided to transform the place after IIT Delhi sent them a detailed action plan to convert this hillock of filth into a green field. The standard “doob” grass has been used to cover the slopes.
According to civic body, more than 70 per cent of the resurfacing and slope stabilization work has been completed and grass has been planted around 7000 sqm. It is expected that with start of rainy season, the plantation would be complete and the landfill site would be fully covered.
Additional Commissioner in SDMC Ramesh Verma said that with concerted efforts of SDMC, the height of over saturated 23 years old landfill site has been reduced from 58 from 38 meter. “The civic body deployed just 58 workers who worked in two shifts for the last 9-10 months to execute the landfill remediation project as per specification of IIT Delhi,” he said.
Verma further said that the stabilisation plan of the landfill was a challenge as it included lying of a 16m slopped road around the landfill. “Each slope was to be built at 22 degrees to avoid occurrence similar to that of the Ghazipur like incident. The top surface has become so strong that even a helicopter can land over it,” he said, adding that construction and demolition waste used to create the top layer.
“A soil cover has been papered over the stabilized slope and green look has been given by planting grass and displaying plants installed in the drum. It is proposed to lay a pipeline from the okhla waste water treatment plant to enable treated effluent water to be used to maintain the greenery,” he added.
A senior SDMC official said that a ‘leachate treatment plant’ has been commissioned to overcome the problem of seepage like situation wherein poisonous water damages the already completed portions. In order to fast execute slope stabilization work four heavy duty bulldozers and five excavators work procured to continue remediation activities.
“Leachate is a widely used term in the environmental sciences where it has the specific meaning of a liquid that has dissolved or entrained environmentally harmful substances that may then enter the environment. It is most commonly used in the context of land-filling of the industrial waste. In the narrow environmental context leachate is therefore any liquid material that drains from land or stockpiled material and contains significantly elevated concentrations of undesirable material derived from the material that it has passed through”. (Source Wikipedia).
Last year, the civic body stopped dumping garbage there last month considering alarming height of landfill. The site was declared as exhausted way back in 2010.
