Garden city has no environmental engineers

Garden city has no environmental engineers
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: The IT capital of the country has just become Greater Bangalore and its area has increased to 747 square kilometers which would generate more than 4,000 metric tonnes of garbage everyday. But the civic body has no environmental engineers to look after solid waste management, control ambient pollution and to co-ordinate with regulatory institutions. Interestingly, the tier II city of Mysore has two environmental engineers at its civic body.

BMP has recently finalised new contracts for garbage collection and transportation and it has run into trouble for not having basic cost estimates for these services. On the other hand, the Mysore City Corporation (MCC) could evolve detailed cost estimates for all its packages as they have expert environmental engineers.

Apart from areas managed by contractors, BMP also manages garbage clearance in about 30 per cent of the city area which requires expert monitoring. At present, BMP doctors have to look after garbage clearance by civic staff and also by the contractors.

The civic body is constructing scientific landfill sites in Mavallipura and Mandur. Though these facilities are given on contract on turn key basis, BMP has no environmental expert to ensure compliance with service conditions. The landfill sites have also run into trouble with environmental clearance by State Pollution Control Board.

BMP Commissioner K Jairaj attributed this gap to high demand for environmental engineers in private sector. He said that BMP had three environmental engineers and two of them resigned for better offers in private sector.

"The Bruhat BMP cannot do without environmental engineers. Apart from waste management and pollution control, these professionals could also monitor environmental clearance for high rises," he said.