The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)’s garbage woes are now brimming with festival waste, virtually negating the three-month reprieve it got from the Mandur landfill.
Stuck with 15,000 tonnes of uncleared garbage, the Palike is finding it tough to meet the mounting waste generated by the ongoing festival season.
Despite working overtime to clear the filth piled up across the City, the Palike’s workers could remove only 3,500 tonnes on Wednesday. Mountains of filth left unpicked were seen all over the City.
But what has aggravated the BBMP’s problem are the loads of bio-waste that are already on way this festival season. At the Palike’s K R Market, at least 5,000 tonnes of banana leaves, flowers and other pooja material would add to the existing filth.
A senior BBMP officer said the waste generated from the Pooja items is different from the kitchen waste and dry waste. He estimated that the total waste generated during Ayudha Pooja and Dasara would be somewhere around 12,000 tonnes, an additional 2,500 tonnes of waste a day.
He further said: “Our problem will only intensify after Bakrid on October 26 when there will be lots of bio-waste besides the uncleared remnants of Dasara festival.”
The impact of the festival season was quite evident everywhere in the City. At Ulsoor, on the main road, next to the Metro Station, banana leaves and stems were seen piled up to a height of over four feet. People selling the pooja material dumped it there. Once the garbage started accumulating there, it became quite a convenient place for the local residents to throw mixed waste.
Syed Nisar, who owns a two-wheeler repairing shop, blamed the government for its failure to keep the City clean. He, however, had no answer whether he was reducing the usage of plastic. He was also unaware of the agitation at Mandur and other landfills.
Fearing a serious backlash from the public in the election year, the ruling BJP too has swung into action. Mayor D Venkatesh Murthy said the garbage crisis that emerged due to Mandur problem, would be cleared soon as the Palike is working on war footing.
He appealed to the corporators to promote segregation at source and scientific disposal of garbage without which there will be serious repercussions on health and environment. He said that so far, 3,500 tonnes of garbage had been cleared.