The Hindu 19.02.2013
Woes of Njeliyanparamba residents continue
Sad plight:Waste from around Kozhikode city piled up at the
Njeliyanparamba waste-treatment plant. The untreated waste water flowing
out of the plant can be seen. —Photo: S. Ramesh Kurup.
The air is still stinking, the water still dark, and
disease-carrying mosquitoes still loom around. The arrival of trucks
carrying waste from around the city has not stopped.
Ten
months have passed since the Kerala High Court directed the City
Corporation to upgrade the waste-processing facility at Njeliyanparamba
here and to rehabilitate the families who were shifted to temporary
shelters within one year. No action seems to have happened on most of
these directions.
For A. Mohammed and family, who stay near the plant, living conditions have not changed much since the verdict.
“Loads
of waste are still being dumped daily on the plant premises. The stench
is unbearable, especially when it rains. Many of us in the locality
still get attacks of asthma and have breathing problems. Skin diseases
are frequent. Many have died of cancer in the locality over the years,”
Mr. Mohammed says.
As per the High Court order dated
April 11, 2012, the Corporation was to “make necessary upgrade to the
present treatment plant and complete the construction of the leachate
treatment plant within six months of the date.” It was also directed by
the sections 326 to 332 of the Kerala Municipality Act of 1994 to
dispose of the solid waste and filth within a year.
However, a visit to the Njeliyanparamba plant reveals piles of waste dwarfing the plant building itself.
The outlet for ‘treated water’ drains out thick, black-coloured effluents.
“The
plant was built here to produce manure. But in the facility here that
consists of just a conveyor belt to crush the collected waste, nothing
of that sort is possible. The Municipal Solid Waste Management rules
state that the ground needs to be concreted to prevent percolation of
waste water and poison into the groundwater. Also, waste disposal should
not be in the open. All of these rules are still being flouted. We will
move the Supreme Court once the one-year period stipulated by the High
Court gets over in April,” says O. Koya, a resident of Njeliyanparamba,
who led the legal struggle against the plant.
But
Mayor A.K. Premajam saysthe delay in upgrade of the plant has been
mainly owing to the lack of response from the State government.
‘PPP model’
“The
Corporation had submitted a proposal to the government for the upgrade
of the plant in a private-public-partnership (PPP) model. We are yet to
get a response regarding this. The list of companies and the type of
plant can be decided only after we get the government approval. The aim
is to develop a plant that can produce energy from the waste and has
least rejects,” says Ms. Premajam.
The cases against those who protested against the plant are still pending in courts in the district.
“Many
of the residents, including women, were charged with various cases
related to destruction of public property and blockade of the highway.
Some of the cases are in far-off courts and for most of us, the frequent
court visits are affecting our livelihood. This is the price that we
paid for a democratic and peaceful protest,” says Mr. Mohammed, who also
has a case filed against him.
Mr. Koya says that
their legitimate protest was hijacked many times by various political
parties for their own ends. But they were able to weed out the
regressive political elements from the protest.
He
said the Corporation had to insist on biogas plants at all apartment
complexes and households, a point that was also part of the High Court
order.
Mr. Koya is a man who walks the talk as is
evident from the biogas plant in his backyard that produces more than
enough fuel to run the kitchen.
He also happily accepts waste from the neighbourhood shops, thus providing a small model for effective waste management.