Dhapa dumping Ground (Kolkata)

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A journey to the dumping ground was not without scare. The road that leads to the hillock shaped dumping ground is 3km away from Eastern Metropolitan Bypass. The 1.5 km road that connects the plain land at Dhapa check post to the garbage hillock is not only uneven, but mostly broken. After a tumultuous car ride reached us the waste hillock, we saw scores of rag pickers at work to segregate plastics from heaps of other forms of wastes deposited there for years. Large chunks of garbage are spilling over from two hillocks to the adjoining vegetables field and a water body, half of which has been filled with large chunks of garbage. Dhapa dumping ground spread over 60 acres of land and started operations in 1987 has long outlived its utility. It was built with the capacity to accommodate city's wastes for 15 years. We need an immediate replacement for the present dumping ground," said an engineer of the Dhapa dumping ground who has been looking after the wasteland for several years. In fact, after a West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) forced the Kolkata Municipal Corporation authorities to allow deposition of garbage in one of the three dumping sites within Dhapa some eight years ago, the civic body made a frantic search for an alternative ground for city's rapidly increasing wastes. The KMC acquired a 30 acre but could not proceed with building a second dumping ground as the lad in question falls under Ramsar site where any types of construction activities is banned under an international convention.