Recent agreement by BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd (BRPL) to buy half the power generated by the 16 mw municipal solid waste-based power plant being set up by the Timarpur-Okhla Waste Management Company Private Limited (TOWMCL) in Delhi has triggered off a fresh debate on how to dispose off the city’s waste.
BRPL has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with TOWMCL under which BRPL will procure 50 per cent of the exportable electricity that will be generated by the under construction 16 mw “waste to energy” integrated power plant in Okhla. The rate at which the power will be purchased will be done through a competitive bidding process.
The electricity will be produced from a mixed household waste which will be deposited at the landfill sites by the MCD. Its role in this entire operation will be restricted to a monitoring one the MCD Standing Committee chairman Vijender Gupta has pointed out.
But angry RWAs of Okhla, Sukhdev Vihar, Sarita Vihar, Gaffar Manzil and Hazi colony have shot off letters to the Delhi chief minister Shiela Dikshit, the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) and the ministry of environment & forests warning that the plant is expected to emit large quantities of hazardous and toxic emissions including dioxins and furans and heavy metals like mercury due to burning of municipal solid waste which will adversely affect the health of the people living in the surrounding areas.
They further cite the recent studies by the Central Pollution Control Board which reveal the presence of increasing degrees of pollutants that cause cancer and cardiac ailments in India’s metros including the capital city. A 10 member fact finding team of leading environmentalists visited the plant on June 18, 2010 and have confirmed that the Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) or incineration is an inappropriate technology for Indian urban waste, which remains largely biodegradable.
Waste experts believe that Indian municipal waste is fit for composting and bio-methanation treatment processes. RDF is a thermal and combustion technology, mainly used to prepare waste for mass incineration.