The premises of the Hyderabad Integrated Municipal Solid Waste Limited at Jawahar Nagar has been at the centre of controversy yet again when local residents staged demonstrations and damaged the administrative building in protest against an accidental death which they attribute to the negligence of the dumpyard management.
A local political leader named Amarender Reddy is said to have met with an accident on Wednesday (September 25, 2024) due to the badly damaged road between Thimmaipalli and Balaji Nagar, which got inundated with water from a lake nearby. Residents allege that leachate from the dumpyard was the reason behind the tragedy.
“During BRS regime, the then Municipal Administration minister K.T.Rama Rao ensured that the legacy dump was capped spending hundreds of crores of rupees. Now, the management has started another dump equal in height just beside the capped dump. Leachate from this waste mountain has been entering the lakes for the past several weeks,” alleges Nomula Laxma Reddy, a resident.
In 2016-17, in order to contain the leachate to the Gundla Cheruvu lake abutting the dumpyard, a diversion canal was dug from Malkaram lake above, to another lake, Edulla Cheruvu nearby.
Mr. Laxma Reddy alleges that the leachate from the newly formed dump is entering the diversion canal, polluting the Edulla Cheruvu. In order to protect the lake, residents of the nearby Thimmaipalli village reportedly blocked the canal. Due to the obstruction, Malkaram Cheruvu got filled up during the heavy rains, and overflowed into the Gundla Cheruvu, cutting through the Thimmaipalli-Balaji Nagar road.
“For more than 45 days, we have been requesting the dump yard authorities to drain the water from the road, but they didn’t listen. Due to water stagnation, the road had become unmotorable. Several commuters fell down and injured themselves,” Mr. Lakshma Reddy said.
Mr. Amarender Reddy’s two wheeler too skidded, and when he fell down, a speeding truck hit him killing him on the spot, he explained.
While the concessionaire agency Re Sustainability Limited could not be contacted for their version, sources from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) informed that the second dump was meant to serve as Refuse Derived Fuel.
“We receive 8,500 tonnes of waste daily and after separation, the organic waste is sent for composting. The RDF majorly consists of textiles and plastics, which is used in waste to energy power plants. As we do not have enough installed capacity to use up all the RDF, the dump is created for storage,” revealed an official unwilling to be quoted.
He refuted the allegations that leachate emanating from this dump caused pollution in the lake. The lake was practically dry before the rains as all the leachate in it was treated and released downstream, he said.
Published - September 26, 2024 12:38 am IST
