Only 16% land reclaimed under legacy waste management project of Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0

A view of the solid waste management complex. Legacy waste dumpsites are places that contain solid waste that has been collected and stored for years in an unscientific and uncontrolled manner.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

Launched with much fanfare, the legacy waste management project of the Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 has been a slow starter, with only 470 out of 2,424 dumpsites completely remediated and an area of 16% reclaimed, three years since the mission was rolled out.

Legacy waste dumpsites are places that contain solid waste that has been collected and stored for years in an unscientific and uncontrolled manner.

With almost no installed facility in India for handling solid waste, the municipal corporations, municipal councils and nagar panchayats have traditionally opted for creating man-made garbage hills. These dumpsites originally developed on the outskirts of the cities. However, with the expansion of the cities over decades, the dumpsites are now often found in the heart of cities on barren land or in landfills and can pose significant environmental and health risks.

According to estimates of the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, approximately 15,000 acres of prime real estate is buried under nearly 16 crore tonnes of legacy waste across the country.

While the Swachh Bharat Mission had been launched on October 2, 2014, its second phase (2.0) was launched on October 1, 2021 for a period of five years, up to October 1, 2026, with a vision of achieving “Garbage-Free Status” for all cities through 100% source segregation, door-to-door collection, and scientific management of all fractions of waste, including safe disposal in scientific landfills.

It aimed at remediation of all legacy dumpsites and converting them into green zones. The mission has also made provisions for scientific landfills to dispose of untreated inert waste and process rejects, to prevent fresh dumpsites being created.

Action plans amounting to ₹3,226 crore of Central Share (CS) assistance on remediation of legacy waste dumpsites have been approved so far. An advisory has also been issued to States and Union Territory administrations on landfill reclamation. As per financial norms of Centrally sponsored Schemes, State and U.T. governments are required to put in matching share from their own side, while disbursing the funds to respective urban local bodies.

According to the dashboard of the Mission’s website, out of the 2,424 dumpsites having more than 1,000 tonnes of legacy waste identified across the country, remediation has been completed in 470, remediation has been approved and ongoing in 1,224, while 730 have been left untouched.

With regard to the area covered, of the total 28,460.33 acres, 16% or 4,552.34 acres have been reclaimed and 84% or 23,908 acres are yet to be reclaimed.

Among States, Tamil Nadu has the maximum area reclaimed from dumpsites at 837 acres (42%). Gujarat is the best performing State with 75% area (698 of 938 acres) of landfills reclaimed.

Municipal Solid Waste generation in India is estimated to be around 1,50,000 tonne per day, according to the State of India’s Environment 2023 report.