The Hindu 07.12.2011
Clear-cut strategy for safe garbage disposal still elusive
Clear-cut strategy or mechanism for safe and environment
friendly disposal of garbage seems to remain an unachievable goal for
local bodies in Kancheepuram district despite implementation / promotion
of different plans during the last decade.
However,
some of the civic bodies such as Tiruporur Town Panchayat and
Thiruvidanthai Village Panchayat in Tiruporur Panchayat Union have
caught the attention of decision makers by their successful
implementation of solid waste management (SWM) programme during the last
quarter of the previous decade.
While the Tiruporur
Town Panchayat had set itself as an example to other small civic bodies
by successfully running a vermi-compost facility in its backyard, the
SWM programme was a thumping success at Thiruvidanthai as the major
expenditure in the form of monthly salary to those employed in the
exercise was taken care of by third parties.
Segregation at source
The
concept of segregation of garbage at source by providing colour bins to
households was tried in vain in 2006-07 and in subsequent fiscals by
several civic bodies. Non-governmental organisations were roped in to
meet out one-time expense of procuring the bins, two each for every
household and for purchase of twin compartment tri-cycles for collecting
the segregated waste at some civic bodies.
Later,
another strategy of involving or rather entrusting the work of
collection and disposal of garbage in specific wards / village
panchayats with the women self-help groups / federations or to the NGOs
or private companies which claimed expertise in SWM was also attempted.
While
this particular strategy turned successful in some of the civic bodies
on the southern outskirts of Chennai and in rural areas where the NGOs
managed to elicit good response from public, in several local bodies it
met the same fate of segregation of waste at source exercise.
Further,
ambitious projects of setting up integrated CCYs for civic bodies
functioning on the southern outskirts of Chennai such as the
Venkatamangalam and Sholinganallur CCY projects were also conceived.
While
the CCY project for Tambaram, Pallavaram and Alandur Municipalities at
Venkatamangalam is yet to become a reality, the CCY for Pammal and
Ullagaram-Puzhuthivakkam Municipalities, 13 town panchayats and 30
village panchayats received stiff opposition from residents of
Sholinganallur at the beginning itself.
The fate of
Sholinganallur proposal now hangs in balance as several civic bodies
listed as beneficiaries of this project were now become part of the
Greater Chennai Corporation, sources pointed out.
Thus
with the negative results of implementing SWM proposals outweighing the
expected positive outcome, it seems that several civic bodies have
turned back to the conventional method of disposing garbage – by way of
dumping them in open places, near water bodies or catchment areas or
using them as landfills or by simply burning them out in open like in
the newly annexed area of Kancheepuram Municipality and in
Nandivaram-Guduvancheri.
