Gurgaon: Leachate from Bandhwari landfill has started flowing towards Mangar village after heavy rain, with MCG’s move to dump soil along the front side of the landfill failing to stop the discharge from spilling onto the road.The contaminated flow has instead found a new route downhill, moving through the Johar nullah towards the Johar bandh — barely 600 metres from Mangar habitation, which abuts Mangar Bani, one of the Aravalis’ last remaining forest groves — raising concerns over the village’s water sources, environmentalists said.“This is a serious threat to Mangar village. Bandhwari has already suffered contamination and now the pollution is moving towards Mangar. MCG needs to act before this contaminates the village’s groundwater and borewells,” said environmentalist and Mangar resident Sunil Harsana.“We received information about the issue and have diverted the leachate to the ponds in the landfill. It would have happened due to excessive rainfall,” an MCG official said.“This is not the first time that leachate has moved towards Mangar. We saw this happening around three to four years ago as well. At that time too, the contamination happened in Mangar. Pollution Control Board should conduct a site inspection and take samples,” environmentalist Vaishali Rana said.The latest flow lends fresh weight to an admission MCG made before National Green Tribunal in July, when TOI reported that the corporation had acknowledged that runoff from Bandhwari landfill flows into the adjoining Aravali forest during periods of heavy and prolonged rain.According to MCG’s affidavit, rainwater from the rear of the landfill drains into low-lying forest areas, while infrastructure meant to permanently prevent such contamination was still being planned or built.“During heavy and prolonged rains, the surface run off rain water from the landfill site (back side) drains into the low-lying area of forest land behind the site. In this regard, the agency which has been awarded tender for processing of legacy waste has installed 2 sets of trommel to process the waste from this side (forest/pond) and to create a buffer zone of about 1 to 2 acres along the forest area. In this buffer zone, new big size drains will be excavated within the landfill site area which will restrict the overflow of surface run off rain water as well as leachate and the same will be channelized to the ponds existing within the landfill site. Thereafter, the leachate will be lifted through tankers,” it said.
