The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Pallavaram municipality faces up to mess of its own making

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 10, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Pallavaram municipality faces up to mess of its own making

By Saptarshi Bhattacharya

Indiscriminate dumping of garbage by the Pallavaram Municipality on the far side of the Pallavaram `periya eri' is posing a threat to the ecosystem. — Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

CHENNAI, JUNE 9. For 30 years, the Pallavaram Municipality has been dumping its garbage on the dry bed of the Pallavaram Periya Eri at Zamin Royapettah. Now, as it seeks a lasting solution to the problem, it is confronted by deficiencies in the conservancy system.

Heaps of rubbish on the roadsides and street corners - whether in New Colony or Old Pallavaram - keep piling up as the Municipality faces problems with the vehicles for removal and transportation of garbage. The old and slow-moving vehicles have contributed to delay in removal of the waste, officials admit. Uncontrolled littering along the main roads and streets has only compounded the problem.

The Municipal authorities said the absence of a compost yard or a landfill site in the vicinity has affected conservancy. Therefore, for years, it has been using the dry lakebed as a dump.

Protests from the residents began only recently, after the areas surrounding the lake became settlements.

The Municipality generates over 75 tonnes of garbage a day but it effectively clears a little over 60 tonnes a day, according to official figures. Admitting the backlog in garbage clearance, the Municipal Chairman, Dhan Singh, in the last council meeting, said conservancy operations suffered because of the elections. He also promised that the backlog would be cleared soon. Residents of Royapettah complained that indiscriminate dumping of garbage on the lakebed for years has led to severe pollution. "The fragile ecosystem has suffered. Several migratory birds once flocked the lake," said T. Ratnapandian, secretary, Pallavaram 8th Ward Residents' Welfare Association. "We have just one prayer. Save our lake water."

The residents are also peeved over the construction of a road connecting Grand South Trunk Road at Pallavaram to Thoraipakkam. The road runs through the lake bisecting it into two water bodies.

Expressing concern over the degradation of the environs due to dumping, officials of the Municipality said the Government has come up with a comprehensive solid waste management plan for Pallavaram, Alandur and Tambaram municipalities.

Proposed under the Tamil Nadu Urban Development Project III, the plan includes setting up of a compost yard at a 50-acre land at Venkatamangalam near Tambaram.

The waste will then be transported to the site directly. The local body would subsequently clear the lakebed of all the garbage, said P. Kuvendran, Commissioner, Pallavaram Municipality. The compost yard is likely to be functional in a couple of months.

Infrastructure at the compost facility is estimated to cost Rs. 2.4 crores, of which Pallavaram Municipality's share comes to Rs. 80 lakhs.

The Municipality proposed to spend another Rs. 83 lakhs on dumper placer bins and vehicles for collection and transportation of rubbish.

Developing infrastructure in three transfer stations is estimated to cost the local body Rs. 38 lakhs.

In total, the outlay for the solid waste management plan for the Municipality is estimated to be Rs. 2.5 crores, which will be met by a State Government grant.

For meeting immediate concerns, the local body will launch a mass cleaning campaign on Friday to clear the rubbish accumulated along the roads and streets.

It will also provide a fillip to the door-to-door collection of garbage, already underway in select wards, where public participation has not been heartening, said the officials.

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