Urban News

The Hindu 23.03.2010

Public hearing on solid waste processing facility

Ajai Sreevatsan

CHENNAI: A public hearing will be held on Tuesday on a Chennai Corporation proposal for setting up an integrated solid waste processing facility within the Perungudi dump yard, at Raja Kalyana Mandapam in Velachery.

Environmentalists and residents claim that the plan to set up a Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) unit in the dump yard would further worsen the situation.

The project involves segregation, composting of organic material, pelletisation of refuse and using it as fuel for power generation through incineration, and land filling of the non-degradable waste.

“The proposal allows the Corporation to bring in mixed waste to the site which will defeat the need for source segregation and segregated waste transportation. These are important parts of Municipal Solid Waste (2000) Rules,” said K. Periasamy, president, Sri Sai Nagar Residents Association. “The executive summary of the project also states that the Corporation shall provide 1,400 tonnes of garbage per day to keep the plant running and this will perpetuate the concept of mixed garbage.”

An Expert Committee, set up by the High Court to look into the issue of garbage dumping at Perungudi, in its final report says, “The present site is not suitable for dumping of municipal solid waste” and siting any other facility in the location “is a violation of the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2000 and The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (1971).”

Threat to residents

Gopal Kishore of Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives said, “Any RDF plant involves incineration and it can pose a serious threat to residents by leaving behind persistent organic pollutants like dioxin.”

Chennai Corporation Commissioner Rajesh Lakhoni said that since source segregation will take some time, parallel measures have to be taken in the meantime.

“Similar projects have been approved by the Pollution Control Board and incineration will happen in cement kilns at more than 800 degree Celsius. There will be 100 per cent environmental compliance.”

The Hindu 23.02.2010

Sholinganallur town panchayat council, residents oppose common compost yard proposal

Special Correspondent

TAMBARAM: The council of Sholinganallur town panchayat has opposed a proposal of the Kancheepuram district administration to set up a common compost yard in its limits or some of the town panchayats in the southern suburbs of Chennai.

The 15-member council passed a resolution to this effect at a meeting on Wednesday.

Sholinganallur town panchayat chairman Arvind Ramesh said even before the council meeting, they had recorded their objections and the resolution was only a reflection of the views of all residents and civic groups in entire Sholinganallur.

On February 14, the Sholinganallur ‘Grama Panchayat' Residents Welfare Association, convened a meeting on Selliamman Koil Street, in which residents and office-bearers of civic groups from all areas of the town panchayat, representatives of political parties, including functionaries of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Pattali Makkal Katchi, the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi and the Left parties took part.

At the end of the three-hour meeting, residents undertook a signature campaign against the common compost yard project, which was sent to the town panchayat and was included as one of the subjects for discussion at the meeting on Wednesday. Mr.Ramesh said that on Monday, councillors, residents and office-bearers of civic groups went to the Kancheepuram Collectorate and submitted to senior officials, a petition, enclosed with a copy of the resolution passed at the council meeting.

In the memorandum addressed to the Collector, Santosh K.Misra, they alleged that the site believed to have been identified by the district administration was a catchment area.

Thus dumping of garbage collected from around 50 civic bodies, big and small, located on the southern outskirts of Chennai at this place would only aggravate the flooding problem faced by the Sholinganallur residents during monsoon.

The memorandum said that dumping of garbage at the proposed 25 acres of land on Kalaignar Karunanidhi Nagar would cause inconvenience to `anganwadi' centre and the primary school located near the proposed garbage dumping yard.

Dumping of garbage would also affect the groundwater quality since the catchment area served as a vital source for fulfilling local drinking water supply requirement and as well as some of the panchayats located nearby, they added.

G.Dhanapal, a member of the welfare association, said it was not fair for people of one locality to bear the brunt of garbage collected from areas far away.

The solution did not lie in projects that would cause a strain on the environment and natural resources, he added.

Agitation

On Monday, a group of residents representing about a dozen welfare associations of Mahalakshmi Nagar, Rajakilpakkam and Sembakkam met authorities of the Sembakkam town panchayat, asking them to intervene and solve the problems around the solid waste management project's compost yard.

The yard was located on the fringes of the Sembakkam lake, they said, and feared that water and air quality would be severely affected.

A. R. D. Loganathan, chairman of the town panchayat, clarified that their local body was among the first to adopt composting of kitchen waste.

They made sure that garbage disposed of near the yard did not spill over into residential localities nearby unlike many other local bodies that were dumping waste even inside the water-spread areas of waterbodies or burial grounds.