Tamil Nadu   

It is a model for solid waste management, not for development

Photo: K. Manikandan.

STINKING PROBLEM: Contamination by way of discharge of industrial effluents is a pressing problem in Pammal Municipality. —

TAMBARAM: Once known only to a few people outside it, Pammal Municipality near Pallavaram has today emerged as one of fast developing localities in the city’s southern suburbs. But development has not been wholesome, as problems associated with rapid urbanisation are seen more here than anywhere else.

Upgraded as a third grade municipality from a town panchayat in 2004, Pammal showed the way by evolving a unique public-private partnership in establishing a zero waste centre, where kitchen waste was converted into manure through vermi composting. Poor roads, severe problems to environment in the forms of foul smell and effluents from industrial units, mostly leather tanneries thereby depleting quality of air and water, the rise in incidents of attempt to grab public land have all made life uncomfortable for residents here.

Civic activism has always been on a high with residents sparing no effort to protect waterbodies. But that was also met with hostile reaction from politicians and police when they arrested an activist on flimsy charges of damaging a dustbin in December 2006.

Pammal was covered originally under the Alandur - Pallavaram Combined Palar Drinking Water Supply Scheme. But it was linked with Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board some years ago along with Alandur and Anakaputhur municipalities. And just like other urban local bodies in the southern suburbs of Chennai, problems of short supply persist. The quality of ground water in houses in Nagalkeni area is poor owing to the concentration of leather tanneries there.

As it is well connected with Chrompet and Pallavaram, Pammal has, of late, been becoming an important destination for builders who are constructing massive apartment complexes, but sanitation has taken a severe beating in many parts with grey water and sewage finding their way into open spots and public places. Residents of Pammal have also been crusading for several years to prevent sewage from contaminating the Tirupananthal Lake and the struggle has become an example for activists striving to protect water bodies. Kitchen waste generated in all 21 wards of the municipality is converted into manure at the zero waste centre in Visweswapuram and environmentalists are of the view that if some more land was made available, it could be developed as an ideal landfill site on modern and scientific lines. Despite this there were rare instances of garbage being left behind and burnt.

Traffic flow has risen over the years, but the condition of the main link roads in Pammal and Shankar Nagar are in shambles. Traffic on Pammal Main Road, which links Pallavaram at Grand Southern Trunk Road with places as far as Kunrathur, is chaotic during morning and evening rush hour. The cement concrete surface of Anna Road has been ripped off.

There are more than 200 leather tannery units, most of them concentrated in Nagalkeni and all of them drained their effluents into the open until the creation of a common effluent treatment plant. Residents and activists acknowledge that there has been a significant improvement since the plant was set up. But certain units were not linked to the plant and hence effluents made their way into the Adyar river near the zero waste centre, they said.

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