THE massive fire at Bhandewadi garbage dump-yard was actually waiting to happen for long. In the past, too, the mountains of urban garbage had caught fire on some occasions. But this time, the fire is truly massive and may prove a major challenge for the administration to handle wisely. True, the administration has pressed into operation its fire dousing mechanisms, all right. Yet, the current fire at the Bhandewadi dump-yard appears to be of proportions never seen before, never handled before. The fire actually brought to people’s notice the mountains of urban solid-waste that were piling up at Bhandewadi. The proportion of removal of solid waste from the mountains was so small that nothing actually seemed to move. Much to the contrary, the mountains of garbage only grew in size and rose over the sky-line of Bhandewadi and neighbouring areas most menacingly.

 

A few people who felt concerned over the non-disposal of the urban garbage did express concern from time to time but were dismissed as senseless alarm-criers to failed to see the positive side of the administration’s effort at good urban management. All that has now turned a full circle -- only to put a stamp of massive inefficiency on the administration. Urban waste is a massive problem the world over, but more so in India where that issue was never given a good and prompt attention -- from the point of view of the resolution of the mountains of urban waste. Now, following a standard procedure, the civic administration of Nagpur may resort to some skin-saving tactics and blame some only distantly related to the management of the urban waste. The administration may blame some bidi smoker who carelessly threw a burning match-stick onto the garbage dump -- which then caught fire.

 

Though on the surface this appears to be a plausible reason for the Bhandewadi garbage dump, the reality may be still be quite different. It would be, of course, be preposterous to level allegations of sabotage. Yet, some questions in that regard do pop up when such massive fires take place -- endangering people’s lives in the neighbouring communities. Not just the toxic smoke but also fears of shanties and even pukka houses in the nearby localities catching fire pop up when such accidents take place. It is unfortunate that the Nagpur administration has not taken the challenge of disposal of urban solid waste seriously -- despite words of caution by many people who really understand the problem. In some more time, the Bhandewadi garbage dump fire would be brought under control, all right. But that would not solve the problem of effective disposal of the mountains of urban waste of all kinds. In fact, urban solid waste disposal is a matter of science and non-stop commitment of the people and their administrators.

 

Unfortunately, only a few places in the whole country can claim to have evolved a truly systematic method of urban waste disposal. And such places include even Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Mumbai -- plus countless tier-II and tier-III cities in the country in addition to rural areas. Each year, the size of mountains of urban garbage keeps growing -- with the administration having almost no clues whatsoever about how to handle the challenge. Only traditional and casual approach is taken to tackling the menace -- with threats of massive fires like the current one looming large over the horizon. Some time ago, when the loosefooter had raised the issue of ever-growing mountains of garbage at Bhandewadi, the administration had indulged in a face-device method of telling how it had cleared a lot of garbage from the Bhandewadi dump-yard on the eastern outskirts of Nagpur. That time administration looked only sheepish as it tried to escape the blame of the Bhandewadi mountains of urban waste. Unfortunately, it did not realise the perils of its senseless advocacy that actually did not solve any problem. Now, with the massive fire at Bhandewadi still posing a serious threat to the community around, it is time to think of permanent ways of effective handling of urban solid waste. If that is not done on an immediate basis, then the city may have to face bigger problems in the future. n