Last week, NGT issued a ban on dumping garbage in Sector 138A, only to designate Sector 123 as a temporary dumpyard. But why isn't anyone making the Astoli site in Greater Noida functional?
The temporary dumpsite in Sector 123, Noida
Noida MLA Pankaj Singh on Tuesday visited the newly designated Sector 123 garbage dump to assure residents of nearby societies that he would discuss the site with Noida Authority. Since NGT’s decision last week to stop garbage dumping in Sector 138A and instead use Sector 123 as a temporary dumpsite, residents have been raising a stink.
NGT also directed Noida Authority to develop a waste-to-energy plant at the site within six months.
Abhay Pandey, a resident of Homes 121, a residential society in Sector 121, Noida, told City Spidey that the dumpsite, whether temporary or otherwise, would be hazardous to residents’ health. There are, he said, more than 30,000 families living in sectors 117 through 122. “The dumpsite and the future waste-to-energy plant will only aggravate air pollution and contaminate groundwater,” he added. “Noida Authority should think about the residents in the area. How can NGT just order a temporary garbage dump in Sector 123 when it had, in 2013, itself said that Noida Authority could not use it either as a dump or as a waste treatment plant until it complied with the municipal solid waste management rules?”
Interestingly, Noida Authority in 2016 had also responded to an RTI query on the dumpsite, admitting that it could not be used as a landfill on environmental grounds.
"MLA Singh assured us that he would talk to Authority officials to shift the site elsewhere, but we are planning to file a case with NGT nonetheless,” Pandey further said.
Incidentally, Noida and Greater Noida authorities had designated a 110-acre site at Astoli in Greater Noida as a solid waste dumping ground, but instead of making that functional, they have been coming up with temporary ways of disposing waste.
When City Spidey spoke to RK Mishra, additional CEO of Noida Authority, he said that the Sector 123 dumpyard would in no way affect the health of residents as it is quite a distance away from all neighbouring societies.
However, according to residents, especially of Homes 121, the dump is no more than 200 metres from their society.
