Tamil Nadu   

Waste management strewn with unkept promises

CHENNAI: The Chennai Corporation has a long history of making promises for improved solid waste management practices (SWM), which are rarely fulfilled (see infographic ). The local body’s budget allocation for SWM between 2002 and 2007 has been Rs.48.85 crore and actual expenditure for the period is about Rs.13.8 crore – which is less than 30 per cent of the allocation.

The problem begins at source — with residents reluctant to take the simple step of segregation of bio-degradable and non-biodegradable waste. The process of collection and transport to various zonal garbage transfer stations and thereon to the landfills has been privatised in three zones. The contractor for these zones, Neel Metal, has begun some efforts to sensitise residents to the need to segregate.

Segregation at source was the most important step in the process of waste management, points out Nityanand Jayaraman, advisor, Community Environment Monitoring. “Within two days, organic matter will have acted on inorganic materials such as batteries and so it cannot be used for composting as the leachate will have contaminated the waste” he said.

The local body has now promised to conduct an awareness campaign in February and March, before it starts to fine rule violations like failure to segregate waste from April 1. Corporation initiatives to improve such awareness are to commence shortly, Mayor M. Subramanian said.

The transport of the waste to garbage transfer stations and the landfills is another sore point for city residents. Garbage lorries often have rubbish falling through the flimsy nets that are used to hold their contents in place. The local body has promised to buy compactor lorries that will minimise this.

Several projects have been announced to improve conditions at the Perungudi and Kodungaiyur landfills. So far, none has been implemented. Community Environment Monitoring had sent an air sample from Kodungaiyur to the U.S. for analysis.

The sample came back showing the presence of 33 toxic gases, five of which were carcinogenic.

“Landfills only delay the problem,” Mr. Jayaraman said. “They are always located where the poor live. It’s a modern form of untouchability.”

P.U. Asnani, head of the Supreme Court Committee on Solid Waste Management, said that no city could manage without a properly engineered landfill site. “The landfill can be done so nicely that people in that area can picnic on that spot,” he said. On the question of waste-to-energy options, which the Chennai Corporation plans to implement in Kodungaiyur, he said future prospects were not bright for the scheme.

Once source segregation is properly practised, the energy giving materials are no longer contained in waste material.

Chennai should go for an integrated system on the lines of one in Bangalore, he suggested. The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board has written to all District Collectors, Commissioners of Municipal Corporations, asking them to instruct local bodies to implement the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000. It has asked them to implement source segregation and scientific disposal.

It has also written another letter to the Secretary, Environment, the Commissioner, MSWA, the Forest Department, the Director of Rural Development and Commissioners of all Panchayats, among others, about the constitution of a committee to monitor the implementation of the Rules.

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