Kolkata: The Dhapa dumping ground on the eastern fringe of Kolkata is at a tipping point, with legacy waste breaching the 1-crore tonne mark and civic officials warning that the overburdened mounds could collapse, posing a serious threat to hundreds of people living in the wetlands under its shadow.The crisis has deepened after extraction of legacy waste at the site came to a halt following the termination of the contract of the private agency engaged for the work. The agency, appointed in 2020 with a 2023 deadline, failed to complete the Herculean task on time, prompting Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) to suspend the arrangement.Civic officials said the situation has been aggravated by the poor functioning of the existing garbage conversion plants at Dhapa and the continued non-use of a 73-hectare plot acquired to set up additional recycling facilities. The land, located adjacent to the existing dumping ground, was meant to take pressure off Dhapa but has remained idle.“The 73-hectare land adjacent to the existing Dhapa site remains underutilised. If we cannot take immediate decision to set up the proposed garbage recycling plants there, we cannot prevent an imminent disaster at the existing dumping ground,” a KMC official said.Dhapa, Kolkata’s only major dumping ground, began operations in 1987 with a capacity to handle around 2,500 tonnes of waste daily. It is now receiving nearly double that amount. According to KMC officials, the site takes about 4,500 tonnes of waste from the city’s 144 wards every day, along with around 500 tonnes from Salt Lake, New Town and Panihati.The civic body has also been asked to accommodate an additional 300 tonnes from Howrah, further increasing the load. “The dumping ground is on the verge of collapse. A disaster much bigger than the Belgachhia dumping ground fiasco in Howrah could happen at Dhapa if urgent steps are not taken,” another civic official said.KMC had earlier sent an SOS to Nabanna, warning that the overloaded waste mounds at Dhapa could give way. A fresh reminder was sent to state govt after the Belgachhia incident in Howrah. Civic engineers have since prepared a vulnerability report on Dhapa and stressed the need for immediate construction of additional landfill and recycling infrastructure.The civic body’s solid waste management department currently has the capacity to process around 1,500 tonnes of waste daily into products such as fertiliser, compressed natural gas and plastic furniture. KMC now plans to raise this capacity to 2,500 tonnes by expanding processing facilities. Officials said that unless waste processing, biomining and landfill infrastructure are expanded quickly, the city’s primary waste disposal site could turn into a major civic and human disaster.
