This award winning waste management plant in Himachal’s Palampur has turned into a garbage hill

Situated in the foothills of the Dhauladhar range, Himachal Pradesh’s Palampur is one of the serene hill stations with a view of snow-capped mountains and sparkling water streams. Rising urbanisation and tourism have led to the accumulation of tonnes of mixed waste at the floodplains of the Neugal river.

“Government is promoting Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, but here the river that is the lifeline of people is getting polluted. There is smoke and various dangerous flies and mosquitos. We have also started experiencing breathing difficulties,” said Meenakshi, a resident of Aima ward, which is 4 km from Palampur city. Aima houses nearly 6,000 residents from the region’s urban and rural pockets.

“The trees have withered out. Our animals drink this water. Rising pollution has affected the livelihood of so many people dependent on sectors such as tourism,” she added.

The dump yard near the Neugal has become a bane for residents and the ecosystem. Neugal river is a perennial tributary of the Beas, a source of water for more than 100 villages. The leachate from the dump yard is carried by irrigation channels and rainwaters that eventually drain into the Neugal.

Garbage is being dumped here, violating the Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules, 2016. The regulation prohibits waste dumping around 100 metres of the river. This site is roughly 40 metres away from the river. 

Workers are seen at the dumping yard. Photo: Fatema Chappalwala.

Aima panchayat attempted to create a model SWM Plant in 2017. It signed a memorandum of understanding with the erstwhile municipal council (the newly formed municipal corporation includes erstwhile Aima and 14 other panchayats) for a joint venture to treat the waste from subzi mandi (vegetable market) and the civil hospital. The local bodies set up multiple machines in an area of 3,850 square feet at an investment of Rs 50 lakh.

In the initial days, the inflow of garbage was 1.5 tonnes per day, collected from about 6,000 residents. The Panchayat even bagged second place at the Himachal Pradesh Environment Leadership Awards 2018-19 and launched campaigns on source segregation of waste.

However, our visit to the site revealed that only a limited amount of waste was segregated at the source, and the workers had to sort the rest. A thick smell hangs in the complex from old compost made from the dysfunctional organic waste composter. The decomposition process is done with the help of bacterial enzymes. The high electricity consumption of the machine raises questions about sustainability.

The interior is well-demarcated for various machines, most of which have not been used since they were installed in 2017. The plastic extruder converts plastic into bricks; this machine requires 100-150 kilowatts of electricity to process plastics.

Defunct machines in the waste management shed. Photo: Fatema Chappalwala.

The garbage collected from the newly formed municipal corporation was dumped at the Aima site, overwhelming its capacity. Gradually the machinery degraded and got defunct by 2021. Open dumping with intermittent burning became a regular practice here. 

A Right To Information (RTI) report revealed that irrigation and public health, forest and electrical departments issued no-objection certificates (NOC) for a smaller plant. The current plant, an expanded facility with a dump yard of more than 2 hectares, is functioning without obtaining NOCs from these departments.

Additionally, NOCs mandated 80 per cent of waste to be segregated and treated. However, the site is covered with unsegregated, mixed waste.

In 2021, a new shed was constructed to segregate mixed waste, but the facility is burdened due to staff crunch. There are only five to six workers to segregate waste entering the large dump yard, leading to an abysmally low segregation rate.

“The burning of polythene at the site flares up the poisonous smoke. Such smoke directly passes through our village, causing respiratory illness. Our crops are affected by the new kind of pests introduced here due to the toxicity in the air. There has been an increase in the number of street dogs that affects our cattle rearing,” said Sonu, a resident of Awarna village, located on the hill opposite the dumping area.

 Rainwater flowing through the toxic waste eventually mixes with the Neugal river. Photo: Fatema Chappalwala.

Residents approached authorities, outlining their woes with the dumping yard. They have also staged a protest, leading to officials assuring them of corrective actions.

“We want to separate the collection days for solid and liquid waste. A bigger plastic shredder and a 5,000 kg machine for organic waste have arrived. A new shed is being constructed and a new transformer will also be installed,” said Ashish Sharma, commissioner of the Palampur Municipal Corporation.

Sharma said the municipality has signed an MOU with the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, which facilitates using the council’s microbes for fast decomposition of organic waste.

“The baling machine has been restarted and will grow plantains to clean the groundwater from the toxicity of the dump site,” he said. Along with these short-term solutions, the commissioner said they are also working on a sewage treatment plant.

Open disposal of garbage here also violates the recent High Court of Himachal Pradesh order that banned dumping of any waste material or debris in rivers, streams and rivulets in the state. The High Court also directed the Pollution Control Board to implement its orders.

Moreover, the court took suomotu cognisance of the Neugal dumping site after a memorandum from a local non-profit was widely circulated. HC also ordered the district legal services authority to inspect the Neugal river bank and submit a report on whether garbage is still being dumped at the site. 

The state pollution control board (SPCB), in an RTI report, observed open dumping of unsegregated MSW, leachate flowing through an open nullah (water body) and untreated solid waste on the site. They have also mentioned that during monsoon flash floods, there are chances that the waste can also be carried away with the increased flow in the river.

SPCB found the municipal corporation violated the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 and SWM Rules 2016 and charged a fine of Rs 1 lakh.

However, the commissioner said they are religiously segregating waste. He agreed there is legacy waste and said they cannot be processed manually but with high-end machines.

Solid waste management is in deplorable condition in the rest of the state as well. 

“The lower areas of Baddi, Barotiwala and Nalagarh are the largest pharmaceutical hubs of Asia. They release solid waste and toxic effluents into the river, turning the region into a cancer belt,” said Manshi Asher, a member of Himdhara Collective, a non-profit.

The tourism industry also greatly contributes to waste, as Shimla, Dharamshala and Manali generate more waste than municipal councils like Mandi, Hamirpur and Bilaspur. The resilient nature of the mountains has been systematically broken by the extractivist development model that has made the mountains fragile, said Asher.

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.

Fatema Chappalwala is an environmentalist and an educator. She is working as a programme coordinator at Sambhaavnaa Institute of Public Policy and Politics.

Subscribe to Daily Newsletter :

SUPPORT US

We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.