Reviving Jhelum

For years Baramulla and Sopore residents have watched helplessly as mountains of unprocessed garbage loomed over the banks of Jhelum. The desolate Jetty was poised to become a new home for the waste. Now, an integrated solid waste management facility comes as a ray of hope for the area. The proposed material recovery facility (with a capacity of 50 tonnes/day) and composting units (having 20 tonnes/day capacity) at Jetty would change the scene. The project would manage the quantum of 58 metric tonnes of garbage generated every day from the two townships. It would also tackle lakhs of tonnes of garbage, which have already been dumped at Jetty in the name of waste processing. It’s a sigh of relief for the local people in this picturesque valley. The garbage generation from Baramulla is around 24 metric tonnes and from Sopore over 34 metric tonnes per day. This quantum of garbage has been dumped at Jetty over the years without any processing facility resulting in an unhealthy and polluted environment. The jetty site has been a breeding ground for bad odour, with unhygienic conditions for the people around it. What makes this project more special is that it would take care of not just the daily garbage generation but also the huge stockpile of garbage. The material recovery facility would recover valuable recyclable material while the composting units would process garbage into manure. The in-situ remediation of the stockpiled garbage is also part of the project. The most crucial aspect of this project is that it would help in cleaning the river Jhelum which has been choking on the waste of 80 drains of Sopore town. This would certainly help revive the ecology of the river Jhelum. For people who have lived in the vicinity of the garbage, this project means clean surroundings. It would provide them with a healthy environment and a new lease of life. The people of north Kashmir deserve this.