[1]To the northwest of Hyderabad, in Jawaharnagar, is a 50m-high “hill”, the heap of waste generated by the city’s eight million people. Every day, the mountain grows by 4,000 tonnes. Fifteen years ago, the area, with its little lake, was a popular spot to visit. Today, the groundwater is contaminated, the lake is dead, villagers in the vicinity have mostly moved away.
The way Hyderabad’s waste is currently managed is a story in itself. By the time it reaches the landfill, it has already had a long journey. About 20,000 men and women with 970 refuse collection vehicles battle the waste daily. Every day, about 5,000 small businesses collect the waste at the front door. Small waste firms sort the rubbish, sell paper, plastic and glass, and take the rest to large waste containers. There are 3,800 of them, but 8,000 would be necessary to keep Hyderabad’s streets clean.
Recently, the Ramky Group bought the mountain of rubbish to turn the area back into the popular picnic spot it once was, while raking in a profit from the waste. “This is the raw material of the future,” says Ramky consultant Christopher Stapelton. The company plans to produce electricity for the city with waste incineration plants.
Within six months, the company built an asphalt road on the top of the hill, rubbish-sorting plants, office buildings, parks and a school.
(Philipp Dudek from the daily newspaper ‘Hamburger Morgenpost’ of Germany is reporting for ‘Deccan Chronicle’ as part of a journalistic exchange project “Close-Up” of Goethe-Institute. The Close-Up project is funded by Robert Bosch Foundation.)
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