Even though the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has claimed it will eliminate the capital's 'mountains of garbage' in the next two years, the monsoon rains have put the brakes on the speed of waste disposal. The situation is such that where 23,000 tonnes of waste were being processed daily in May-June, it has now reduced to just 7,336 tonnes per day. If the work continues at this pace, it will become a major challenge for the corporation to meet its deadline for clearing these landfill sites.
Notably, the work of levelling these mountains of garbage in Delhi has been ongoing since 2019, but even after so many years, the corporation has not been able to prepare an alternative action plan for challenges like the monsoon. However, Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh has given an assurance that the corporation's plan takes into account all obstacles, including the monsoon, and they will achieve the target within the stipulated deadline.
A senior official of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, explaining the process, said that waste disposal is done using trommel machines. In this method, old waste is first dug up from the landfill, dried, and then sent to a screening machine via a conveyor belt. In the machine, inert materials like soil are filtered and separated, while plastic, iron, and other debris are segregated. During the rainy season, there is difficulty in drying the waste, which is why the processing work at the landfill sites slows down.
The data from a report submitted by the corporation to the Delhi government also confirms this. In May, an average of 9,835 tonnes at the Bhalaswa landfill, 7,317 tonnes at Okhla, and 3,996 tonnes at the Ghazipur landfill was being disposed of daily. This quantity has now come down to 1,859 tonnes, 3,173 tonnes, and 2,304 tonnes per day, respectively.
It is noteworthy that the corporation has 18 trommel machines at the Bhalaswa landfill, where 43.56 lakh metric tonnes of waste are to be disposed of by December 2026. Similarly, at Ghazipur, the target is to remove 80.59 lakh metric tonnes of waste with 28 machines by December 2027. At the Okhla landfill, there is a plan to completely clear 28.21 lakh metric tonnes of waste using 16 machines by July 2026.