The Hindu 19.02.2013
Woes of Njeliyanparamba residents continue
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.
