Putt and picnic at city’s dump yard

HYDERABAD: With protests growing louder over garbage dumping sites in the city, the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) is toying with the idea of turning the present dumping sites into golf courses or gardens and shift the dumps to new sites on the outskirts of the city.
Of the 2,300 tonnes of garbage generated in the city, the MCH is using about 200 tonnes for generating 6.6 mega watts of electricity.The Golconda dumping yard has been handed over to the Golf Course Association for developing it into a golf turf.
“The Autonagar dumping yard will make an excellent golf course,’’ an MCH official said. Since it is adjacent to a deer park, the place will develop into an excellent tourist spot, he added. The whole area around the Autonagar yard can be converted into an ecoconservation project, he said.
The MCH is identifying a place to create a landfill, taking all scientific measures such as making trenches, capping the garbage, separating dry garbage from the wet to bring down the level of pollution in the area.
Two of the three dumping sites in the city are filled to the brim, he said. The Golconda dumping ground was closed down in January 2000 as it got filled up. The MCH recently stopped its dumping activities at the Gandhamguda.
Autonagar with a dumping area of 40 acres is the only dumping yard in operation now. Unless more power plants that use garbage as fuel are set up, garbage dumping at open spaces will pose danger to ecology, he said. Arindam