Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai   

Corporation to focus on source segregation of garbage

By Saptarshi Bhattacharya

CHENNAI DEC. 30. As the city's garbage dumps keep swelling, the Chennai Corporation has set its sight on source segregation of garbage and composting for reducing its waste load.

When it finally plans to introduce this method in a few parts of the city around Pongal, the civic body would have overshot the December deadline for setting up waste processing and disposal facilities as per the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules 2000.

The two dumping yards - Kodungaiyur in the north and Perungudi in the south - are being burdened with 3,200 tonnes of garbage everyday. Indiscriminate dumping, burning of waste and related problems at these sites have led to several complaints of health hazards from residents.

The civic body uses about 250 acres of the 1,800-acre marshy land in Perungudi for dumping its waste. The Kodungaiyur yard has an extent of 65 acres, which forms part of the 350-acre marshland.

So far, the Corporation has not devised any project for setting up the compost plant, but it plans to begin composting at its dump yards and transfer stations using rudimentary methods, say officials. Chennai's garbage has 35 per cent inert material and 40 per cent organic waste. A team of Corporation engineers recently visited Pondicherry to study the model there.

A team from Pondicherry will visit Chennai shortly to inspect the dumping yards and submit a proposal for a compost plant, according to the officials.

Awareness campaign

Meanwhile, the Corporation Commissioner, M. P. Vijayakumar, today inaugurated an awareness campaign in Mint aimed at motivating residents to segregate waste at their houses.

He said many residents and civic action groups were practising composting techniques in a small scale. "We will replicate a good model."

The Municipal Solid Wastes Handling Rules also require local bodies to improve existing landfills by 2001. The local bodies were also to identify landfill sites and make them ready for operation by December 2002. The Corporation has not met any of these conditions.

The officials said several constraints delayed the implementation of the rules, chiefly the lack of funds. The report of the Supreme Court Committee on Solid Waste Management suggested that the finances be split among the Central Government, the State Government and urban local bodies, but the rules did not include any financial aspect.

The budget allocation for solid waste management under the capital head this year was Rs. 3 crores, which was revised to Rs. 1 crore recently. The department had sought Rs. 8 crores next year.

"We plan to improve the infrastructure in the dumping yards to make them sustainable sites," says an engineer.

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