Enough of civic garbage: villagers want dump moved

Pune, November 09 For years, people on the outskirts of Pune have been seeing their villages being turned into a dumping ground for the city’s garbage. Villagers of Uruli Devachi and Phursungi had wanted state pollution control authorities to rein in the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), alleging they were facing health hazards.

But to their dismay, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has failed to take any action other than issuing notices to the civic body for “unscientifically” dumping the garbage.

Now, the MPCB is said to be getting ready to send the “final” notice to PMC. The civic body, on the other hand, is ready with a garbage processing unit, but the angry villagers would have none of that. Tired of mere warnings against the PMC every now and then, the villagers, particularly from Uruli Devachi and Phursungi, are seeking concrete action from MPCB and want the garbage dump shifted.

The gram panchayats of Uruli Devachi and Phursungi had, from time to time, been complaining against contamination of groundwater including water in the village wells, the stench from the dump and frequent fires at the site spewing out smoke. In a notice in September 2008 issued to PMC chief medical officer (solid waste management), the MPCB had rapped the civic body for unscientific disposal of municipal solid waste.

“You (PMC) have failed to provide proper transportation arrangement for carrying Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) to the site, due to which, spillover of garbage was noticed at many places creating a foul smell,” the notice says.

In November 2001 and again in September 2004, the MPCB issued notices pointing out many deficiencies in the garbage disposal system of PMC.

“MPCB has merely forwarded notices to PMC and failed to take any concrete action, even though we have been having a harrowing time since years because of this open dumping of garbage and suffering from many health issues,” said a villager.

Regional officer, MPCB, P K Mirashe said, “Sending notices is part of our action.” He admitted though that despite regular reminders, the PMC has largely failed to take concrete action. “Finally our head office in Mumbai has now sent a comprehensive and final notice to the civic body covering all the issues. Now, we will give them some time to execute these or else we will start legal action immediately.”

Responding to this, municipal commissioner Praveensinh Pardeshi said, “We are ready with a garbage processing unit, but the villagers do not want it. They want the dump shifted out, which is why we could not operate the unit. We are also launching a project to seal the garbage and procure methane from it. But it will take some time.”