Pune is clean
Because it sends its garbage to pollute a nearby village
SINCE 1983, all the municipal garbage from the city of Pune in Maharashtra has travelled 12 km to be dumped in the village of Urali-Devachi. More than 1,000 tonnes each day. Spread across 43 hectares, the dump pollutes the area. Leachates contaminate the ground water, rendering it unfit for drinking, bathing or irrigation. The air is thick with smoke from burning garbage. The residents of the village took the Pune Municipal Corporation to the high court, complaining it violated garbage management rules.
A group of researchers decided to study the seriousness of the complaints. In a article in the journal Current Science (25 September), they claimed the village faces a toxic time bomb if the municipality continues to dump here. They found a high degree of contamination, with smoke and dust created from the burning of solid waste.
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