Thursday, 11 January 2018

MCD composting in Dwarka doing more harm than good?

While on the one hand Dwarka has been one of the strongest advocates in the NCR of waste management and composting, on the other, it is undercutting the very lessons it seeks to impart.
The compost being used in various parks managed by the municipal corporation is shockingly full of waste polythene. This sends a strange message to residents. While use of compost is an environment-friendly means of promoting greenery, “spiked” with plastic, it chokes the very soil it seeks to enrich.
Parks in sectors 14, 16 and 17 are testimony to the problem.
Residents of the area are appalled at the use of this polythene-mixed compost. A resident of Radhika Apartments in Sector 14, PK Singh, said, “The park behind our society was developed by DDA a few years back and then handed over to the municipal corporation. The corporation is maintaining it well, but I don’t understand why it is using this polythene-mixed compost.”
People are aghast that the very corporation that espouses the cause of waste segregation is not following what it preaches. A resident of Sector 18, Sunil Bhargav, said, “The use of this compost is sending out a wrong message on waste segregation. The municipal corporation should first clean the compost and then use it. I can’t understand why MCD officials are so casual about such issues.”
When City Spidey broached the topic with an MCD official, he said, “How can we segregate compost that already has plastic waste in it? We have no option but to use it the way it comes to us. If higher officials take an interest in this, only then can the issue be resolved.”