The Firefighting of Darjeeling’s waste problem

Toxic fumes and smoke billows from tons of garbage and waste which are on fire at Darjeeling town's solid waste dumping ground or 'chute' in Feb2024. Like most Himalayan towns, Darjeeling simply believes in removing the waste from the town and offloading the untreated waste in a remote area (Photo Credit: Zero Waste Himalaya)

On the night of January 28, 2024, the waste dump of Darjeeling caught fire once again. Yet again, the Darjeeling night skies glowed orange, spreading panic among residents close by. It was not even a year back on June 14 2023, when a similar fire had simmered over 4 months and it had taken the Darjeeling Municipality over 60000 litres of water transported through tankers to douse the fire. The alarming situation created a buzz in the media, provided a bit of opportunity for mud slinging and blame games, but as the fire went out, all conversation around it also died down.

What must have been a remote location during the the days of the British Raj is now Amar Jyoti Gram, Municipal Ward No 17 of Darjeeling town and this is where the town's solid waste continues to be dumped. We visited the site on 01Feb2024 - the fire was still burning, despite being doused with huge quantities of water. (Photo credit - STH)

The dumping site going ablaze undoubtedly draws much needed public attention to the problem but fails to shake the town into solving it. Let's not forget that the smoke from the smouldering dump has been contributing to Darjeeling’s polluted winter air for over a decade now (Darjeeling Burning!). All of the unsegregated waste dumped in the chute has been burning relentlessly, with the fumes enveloping the town in its toxic shroud. Living in such toxic and hazardous situations has somewhat become the norm for Darjeeling every winter, and this is highly concerning.

The chute on fire on 01Feb2024. The decaying organic matter produces flammable gases (mainly methane) which after catching fire continues to burn despite best efforts to extinguish the fire. (Photo credit - STH)

In response, Darjeeling, like so many other places, has quite literally been firefighting to keep the problem at bay. What is needed are longer term vision and strategies grounded on community ownership and individual actions. While waste profiles and demographics have undergone massive shifts over the years, our management systems are struggling to catch up with the changes. With mindless consumerism fueled by social media and the frenzy of online shopping, we are buying unnecessarily, and our waste piles are increasing by the day. Single use products that are non recyclable make up a bulk of the trash from our households that ultimately end up in the dump site mixed with biodegradable waste. (What Lies Beneath! The Truth about Darjeeling’s Waste)

The waste dump lies directly below Darjeeling town and the wind takes the toxic fumes, miasma and smoke directly into the town. Seen here in the foreground are built up areas in the dump site and new houses being built there; in the distance are Singmari and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute complexes. (Photo Credit - STH)

Individually and as bulk generators, our waste footprint has increased dramatically, but our responsibility towards managing our own waste has remained pitifully low. It is a struggle for local bodies to collect the monthly garbage fee to manage the waste we generate. Our houses may be tiled to the ceiling, but the simple practice of waste segregation is still an unthinkable chore for most of us. Segregation at source is the fundamental step to a sustainable waste management system. Without community support and ownership, long term strategic solutions will always remain elusive.

The urban setting around the 'chute' today. (Photo credit - STH)

It is time for all of us to take cognizance of the hazardous conditions we are creating and take concrete steps to resolve it. Zero Waste Himalaya, has developed the 8 steps strategy to move towards sustainable waste management which requires ownership and participation from the community as well as strong commitment and vision from elected bodies. -

1. Build citizen action and stewardship - Waste is everyone's business as all of us are
producers and managers of waste. To have a successful waste management system,
it needs community ownership and stewardship. This can be brought about by
participatory planning processes, ownership of action and continual community
engagement and knowledge building.

2. Adopt decentralised waste management at ward level or ward clusters- Decentralised waste management reduces the volume of waste to be managed, and makes the task of monitoring easier. Material recovery facilities can be developed for waste sorting and storage, with linkage to recyclers. With the goal of reducing landfill load, only ultimate discards should be sent to the landfill.

3.Implement segregation of waste at source - This is already mandated by the Solid Waste Management Rules of 2016 that stipulates segregating into biodegradable, non-biodegradable and hazardous.

4. No biodegradables to landfill - If segregation is practised, then the biodegradable waste can be managed separately. There are options for home composting, community composting or bulk composting.

5.Target bulk generators - Bulk generators such as hotels, restaurants, hostels, offices, markets generate waste in large volumes. They have to be targeted and their waste managed separately. SWM Rules mandates bulk generators to manage their biodegradable waste and not send it to the landfill. Food, vegetable and meat waste can be managed as animal feed, compost or through biomethanation. 

6. Strengthen and expand single use plastics ban - Increasing plastic production and consumption is the root of the Himalayan waste crisis and reduction of this waste is the real solution. This reduction of plastic can be achieved with the implementation of single use plastic ban that India has enacted since 1 July 2022 but a number of these banned SUP are still used in Darjeeling. For the Himalayan region, there is a need to expand this ban to other single use plastics like bottled water (especially the tiny one) that will enable the reduction of plastic waste to the landfill.

7. Invest in pilots (wards / institutions) - Pilots are a good way to showcase the immense possibilities as well as learn while doing. This can be a tool for others to learn and scale up from.

8. Invest in capacity building of all stakeholders (elected representatives / CBOs / Officials) The changing profile of waste has meant that traditional waste management systems of rolling down the hill and burning proves toxic and there is a need to shift the narrative in policy and practice. Leading by example is one of the most powerful actions thus elected representatives and community gatekeepers can be powerful agents of positive community change. A Zero Waste Learning Center can also be planned in a convenient location which can act as a constant source of learning on waste management for all stakeholders. 

 

Beyond all this, companies that are sparing no cost to send their plastics up the mountains need to be held accountable for managing it or taking it back. There is a need to close the plastic tap, especially those that are unnecessary, single-use and having no solutions. This is already enshrined in the Extended Producer Responsibility Rules 2022 under the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 and this needs to be implemented in the mountain states. (Plastic crisis in the mountains: Will extended producer responsibility bring in change).

Zero Waste Himalaya is a platform of organizations, institutions and individuals working on issues of sustainable waste management and advocating for effective producer responsibility in the mountains. 

Write to us at zerowastesikkimdarjeeling@gmail.com


Follows us on FB / Instagram: @zerowastehimalaya

Priya Shrestha
Roshan Rai
www.thehimalayancleanup.in

 

A walk down to the solid waste dumpsite at Dalman Gaon (Kalimpong), to understand the complexity of waste management in a Himalayan town - by STH interns.

On 13Jun2023, we walked a distance of approximately 5.5km down a steep inclined road to Dalman Gaon, Bhalukhop village, to see the waste dumping ground used by the Kalimpong Municipality for the disposal of the town's solid waste.

Kalimpong has a population of 49403 (2011 census) and is one of the major towns in the Darjeeling - Sikkim Himalaya and like all Himalayan towns, Kalimpong has a lot of development activity (much of it unplanned) taking place; the town is surrounded by a large number of home stays which add to the solid waste problem. 

 

As per the Municipality, it is estimated that 38.4 metric tonnes of waste is generated everyday of which only 10.4 tonnes of the waste is collected and the dumping ground has become a site where every conceivable type of solid waste is discarded.

 

On approaching the dumping ground, we encountered the rusting carcass of a biogas plant set up by the Municipality in 2015 with the intention of making and selling cooking gas in order to generate funds from the sale thereof. The construction cost of this plant was Rs 80 lakhs. It was estimated that the biogas plant could process 3 metric tonnes of organic waste per day with the final products being biogas and organic manure. The project failed due to a number of reasons and no biogas was commercially marketed from the plant.
The non-functional bio-gas plant raises questions regarding proper utilization of resources, loss of public money and accountability.

What was very apparent from seeing the dumping ground was that segregation of the huge volumes and assortment of waste at the dumpsite was an impossible task. Hence the necessity of segregation at the household level.

The Chota Bhalukhop area where the dumpyard is located, is a very landslide prone zone as per Geological Survey of India (GSI). The extraordinary rains of September 2007 resulted in a number of large landslides in this area and at least two landslide fatalities.

The dump yard being located in this zone results in the road to the site getting blocked frequently during the monsoons which causes the disposal of waste on streets of Kalimpong town - which could cause a serious health hazard in a densely populated urban setting. 

Historically, Kalimpong had two earlier solid waste disposal sites. The first dumpsite located above Alaichikhop village was discontinued after villagers protested in 2009 on the waste from town being dumped in their area.

 

After the Alaichikhop dumping site was closed a temple was built at the site to deter any one from dumping waste at the site.

Thus the second dump site was at Bhalukhop (see below).This second dumpsite however, had to be closed after considerable expenditure incurred in the construction because of landslides in the area.

 

 As such the Dalman Gaon dump site is the third dump site of Kalimpong town.

Kalimpong Municipality engages 4 vehicles(2 pickups, 2 tipper trucks) for collection of wastes from different parts of Kalimpong town which operates 3 trips per day to the dumpsite. They have around 20 persons engaged in this job.

After a long walk along the rugged hillside on the western face of Kalimpong, the image of a hill made up of solid wastes, mostly of plastic, revealed the ugly and almost insurmountable problem of solid waste management in a mountain town.

In conclusion, the visit to the solid waste dumping ground in Dalman Gaon, Bhalukhop village revealed the pressing need to reduce the amount of waste being produced in Kalimpong town especially because tourism is adding more and more waste to the mountains and to stringently implement the ban on single use plastics.
There is also an urgent need to launch a concerted campaign to raise awareness on the importance of household segregation of waste in Kalimpong.

Report by Interns with SaveTheHills (STH)

Akshima - IIT (Mandi)
Yogesh K Vijay - IIT (Mandi)
Mohd. Ashiq - IIT (Mandi)
Mohd. Salih - IIT (Mandi)

with guidance from

Praful Rao
Kalimpong district,
Darjeeling- Sikkim Himalaya
savethehills@gmail.com
9475033744

Solid Waste Management meeting in Kalimpong - 08Feb2020

Praful Rao,
Kalimpong District,
Darjeeling - Sikkim Himalaya