Why does NH10 near Martam Stink?

YOUGAL SAPKOTA

Every one of us must have witnessed an unfavorable, unpleasant and irritating smell while passing through National Highway 10 exactly in Martam near to the camp that forces everyone to cover our mouth while passing by. The biggest question is why it actually stinks? This article will highlight some of points behind the stinking highway. This article includes some facts and figures about the current status of landfill, role of stakeholders and possible solutions. The interpretation of the facts and figures mentioned here are left to the readers to come into possible conclusion.

Location

Martam is a beautiful village known for its natural beauty and famous rice valley but surprisingly also famous for stinking highway. The exact cause is landfill located in this region. Dumping site is located few meters below the National Highway, few metres below the dumping site flows the Rani khola which can be possible source of water for habitation downstream. ‘Leaching’ refers to the process by which liquids, including rainwater and groundwater, pass through municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills, causing the waste to break down and release contaminants into the surrounding soil and groundwater. Very few studies are conducted on the leaching and water quality of the river so reader can themselves imagine it’s water quality. Camp is located near to the landfill and there are some habitation just few metres away from the landfill. This is legendary example of people easily adapting in any harsh situation, but at what cost? (cost is explained later).

Let me highlight the fact that as per the SWM Rules, 2016, the landfill site shall be 100 meter away from river, 200 meter from a pond, 200 meter from highways, habitations, public parks and water supply wells , arrangement shall be made to prevent leachate runoff from landfill area entering any drain, stream, river, lake or pond. In case of mixing of runoff water with leachate or solid waste, the entire mixed water shall be treated by the concern authority , Landfill gas control system including gas collection system shall be installed at landfill site to minimize odour, prevent off-site migration of gases, to protect vegetation planted on the rehabilitated landfill surface, landfill gas shall be burnt (flared) and shall not be allowed to escape directly to the atmosphere or for illegal tapping, ambient air quality at the landfill site and at the vicinity shall be regularly monitored. There are various others points in the rules but this article includes a few of them, off course for a reason.

Present status of Martam Landfill and Municipal Solid Waste

a) Landfill Capacity - Gangtok Municipal Corporation under Gangtok district, Rangpo Nagar Panchayat, Singtam Nagar Panchayat under Pakyong District and Mangan Nagar Panchayat are availing the landfill facility at Martam, Gangtok District Sikkim. The capacity of Martam landfill is 50 tonne/day. (SPCB Annual Report).

b) Monitoring facilities – There is no monitoring facilities available for monitoring of ambient air, ground water, leachate quality, compost quality and VOCs. (SPCB Annual Report, 2023-24)

c) Processing facilities – No vermi-composting plant, biogas/biomethanation , RDF/Pelletization, waste to energy plants are operational till date. (SPCB Annual Report, 2023-24)

Waste Production, processing and dumping

Graph 1 depicts the amount of waste generated, collected, processed and dumped in Martam landfill from year 2019 -20 to 2023 -24(As per Annual Report , SPCB ).The figure is enough to explain the failure of concern department in treatment of waste. Surprisingly the waste (51.5 TDP) was dumped in year 2019-20 that is beyond the capacity of Landfill. Total waste of 62.5 TDP was generated in same year maybe because of lockdown. As we can infer from the figure that majority of waste is simply dumped, resulting in increasing burden in dumpsite. The amount of waste production has increased significantly in Gangtok from 0.459 TPD in 2001 to 65 TPD in 2017 with increase in population (GMC & UDHD, Government of Sikkim, 2018).As per the research, 78% of the total waste collected from Gangtok are directly dumped in the landfill. Same research has projected that with increasing population in town the amount of waste generation would be more than 80 TPD in 2033 which is beyond the capacity of Martam landfill. This data are enough to prove that one landfill is not enough for the coming days and maximum processing of waste is required.

Odour and its effect

Coming to the main point, why NH10 stinks?The municipal waste consist of 60-65% organic waste and 30-35% recyclable waste (CPCB Sikkim) but due to improper segregation, where only 59% of waste are segregated in source, organic waste are also dumped in landfill and because of decomposition , chemical and biological transformation , landfill will generate landfill gases like methane, hydrogen sulfide, CO2 and other toxic VOCs. Odor that we witness is because of these gases whose continuous exposure may be harmful. Methane and CO2 are not only greenhouse gases that contribute in global warming but also affect human health. Short term exposure to landfill gases may cause eye, nose and throat irritation, nausea etc but long term exposure may cause respiratory problems like asthma. People living nearby the landfill site are subjected to long term exposure and may have been affected by the same. Since very few research is done in this site, it is assumed that there is no affect at all.

Improper segregation and lack of landfill gas management is the basic reason behind the odor in the landfill area. Following are the stakeholders who are directly or indirectly involved in management of the landfill.

State Pollution Control Board, Sikkim

The Sikkim Pollution Control Board (SPCB) is responsible for implementing and enforcing pollution control measures in the state of Sikkim but interestingly as per the report submitted by the Central Pollution Control Board to the NGT recently in September 2024 , Sikkim reported the most vacancies in SPCB , with none of the 11 sanctioned posts filled. Readers are requested to estimate the level of seriousness shown by  the board towards the pollution management in state.

Residents of Municipal area

As highlighted above, improper segregation of the waste is the major reason behind the odor in the landfill area . How many of the people living in municipal area and commercial establishment have separate dustbin for biodegradable and non-bio degradable waste? All the waste is generally dumped in one dustbin, packed as it  is and left in a nearby road side for garbage truck to collect it as it is. Some intelligent people throw in nearby jhoras and assume water will carry it downstream.

Municipal Corporation

Municipal Corporation is indeed trying its best to reduce the waste management but still failing to convince people regarding the same. It is rare to see concerned department conducting the awareness programme on waste segregation, management and transportation. Ban in early disposal of waste before arrival of vehicle has somewhat improved the condition but the quantity of waste generation keeps on increasing.

Possible solutions

Sikkim Pollution Control Board should now think of immediately recruiting manpower and fill up all the vacant posts and make board functional as soon as possible, start monitoring and take necessary steps and should focus more on treatment and processing of waste than simply dumping. They must immediately start monitoring of air , water and soil quality and establish processing plant and focus on waste to energy conversion model. Municipal Corporation should focus more on awareness program on waste segregation and waste minimization at source itself. Citizens should be aware of the detrimental effect of excessive waste production and align themselves with the municipal corporation directives. Excessive purchasing and improper disposal of waste must be discouraged and eco-friendly lifestyle must be encouraged. Educational/research institute of Sikkim state and nearby regions should conduct more research on solid waste management status of Sikkim and suggest possible solutions to the policy makers. We should not forget that the odor in Highway is not because of one person or organization, it is a collective contribution from us and we must realize this as soon as possible.

(Email: yooglesaps@gmail.com)