As garbage continues pile up at every nook and corner of
the city, the Corporation and the district administration are looking
the other way. It has been over a year since dumping of garbage was
stopped at Lalur. Yet, no alternative arrangement has been found for the
purpose.

Filth infested by flies and maggots are strewn around even on the thoroughfares for weeks together.

People
at Lalur, city corporaion’s garbage dumping yard, may have heaved a
sigh of relief when the dumping came to an end last year, but the people
in the city are now going through exactly what the former suffered all
these years. Residents in the city are at their wit’s end because of the
Corporation’s refusal to acknowledge its responsibility to find a quick
solution.

The Lalur Malineekaran Viruddha Samara
Samithy said it would not allow further dumping of waste if the
corporation failed to remove the accumulated garbage from the dumpyard.

“The
garbage dump contains a huge amount of plastic. So the soil can’t be
used for any other purpose without segregating the plastics.

And as the plastics have been decayed it cannot be recycled,” it said.

Meanwhile, the corporation has opted for an easy route out: burning of garbage on streets.

The
health expert warn that the burning of waste will create serious
environmental and health hazards. When garbage is burned in heaps it
often leads to production of carbon monoxide along with carbon dioxide,
said environmentalists.

Carbon monoxide is a product
of incomplete combustion of organic matter due to insufficient oxygen
supply. Carbon monoxide mainly causes health problems by combining with
haemoglobin to form carboxyhemoglobin in the blood. This prevents oxygen
binding to hemoglobin, reducing the oxygen-carrying capacity of blood.

Burning
of plastics and PVC produces many toxic fumes, including dioxin, which
causes cancer, the doctors noted. “Continuous exposure to the fumes from
burning plastics may cause diseases, including chemical pneumonia and
bronchospasm, sudden constriction of the muscles in the walls of the
bronchioles. Children and elderly people are more vulnerable , they
said.

Many city residents complain of nausea and
vomiting as the burning of organic matter produces sulphur gases, which
has pungent smell.

The health expert warn that the burning of waste will create serious health hazards.