The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : Garbage dumps spew toxic smoke

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 17, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

Garbage dumps spew toxic smoke

By Subha J Rao

COIMBATORE, FEB. 16. If you had been driving on Chettipalayam Road after 6 p.m. on Monday, you would've felt a sudden tightening in the chest and a need to switch on your car's fog lamps. Acrid smoke hung heavily in the air and visibility dipped to near-zero as the Corporation dump yard on the Chettipalayam-Vellalore Road started spewing toxic smoke yet again.

Though dull-grey smoke billowed over the yard during the past week, Tuesday was by far the worst for residents. The smoke permeated into homes and made breathing difficult. Toddlers and asthmatics gasped for some time before finding solace in inhalers and local hospitals. Morning and evening walkers were unable to complete their customary four-kilometre walk. In the hutments at Mettur, peopled mostly by daily wage labourers and their families, parents wondered where to leave their children - their houses are too small to allow much movement and the streets used to be their children's playground. The children there complain of a burning sensation in the eyes and throat.

Residents angry

Despite constant reassurances by corporation officials that the problem would be set right, nothing has changed. Aggrieved residents, who have in the past resorted to hunger strikes, roadblocks and forming a human chain, are fuming. Despite four meetings with officials, nothing has been done. "This is it. They are going back on every single promise made." Officials of the Kurichi-Vellalore Pollution Prevention Action Committee (KVPPAC) told The Hindu : "We have decided to re-start our agitation. This will be the last phase and we will ensure the dump yard is shifted out of this locality."

To work out the next stage of protests, a meeting of all residents' associations, social service organisations and merchants' associations is soon to be called. "Earlier, the smoke was not this bad. Now, it has gone up to Malumichampatti, a village three km from the dump yard," they said.

Workers at the dump yard try to douse the fire with water, but don't succeed as each dump is huge and the fire starts from below. Also, the profusion of polythene and plastic sheets in the dump prevents the water from percolating to the bottom of the pit. If this (dousing with water) is the only solution, then attempts need to be made to segregate plastic and other wastes, a resident said.

The Corporation Commissioner, Anil Meshram said water tankers had been pushed in to control the blaze. The City Health Officer and other officials had also been deputed to take stock of the situation in the areas near the dump yard. Following this, the smoke emanating from the dump has reduced considerably.

A pollution control official, who visited the affected areas recently, says that despite repeated requests, the Corporation is yet to provide details of the quantity of solid waste in the sewage farm. "There is a major problem in the dump yard. It could lead to health hazards. Something needs be done fast," he said.

Shifting the dump is not an immediate possibility; but one of the solutions would be dumping the garbage in at least three different places in the city. "That will make the task of managing it easier," he felt.

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