The Times of India 01.02.2010
Dealing with unsegregated waste
CHENNAI: The residents of Perungudi and Kodungaiyur, where the notified dumping grounds of the Chennai Corporation are overflowing with tonnes of unsegregated waste, are sure to be pleased with the plans to decentralise solid waste management (SWM) practices in the soon-to-come-about Greater Chennai.
The two areas, previously in the suburbs, will soon be part of the Chennai Corporation that will sprawl over 426 sq km. It is now spread over 174 sq km. As part of the government’s plan to extend the city limits to better civic infrastructure, the corporation sent a three-page questionnaire to the heads of the newly-included areas — 25 panchayats, eight town panchayats and nine municipalities in Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts — for information on the ‘fine points’ of solid waste management there, informed sources say.
The questions posed include waste generated per day, availability of landfill sites, number of men and machinery, transfer stations, proposals such as identifying future dumpsites, operations of sanitary landfill site, budget allotment for SWM, door-to-door operations, bio-metric attendance, night conservancy, segregation of waste at source and welfare measures for conservancy staff.
“SWM rules will be implemented in the extended areas for zero waste management,” said a senior official. The authorities are mulling over whether to enter into a Public Private Partnership (PPP) or seek government support to implement the projects.
The corporation, at present, has a tie-up with ITC Ltd. to buy recyclable waste from residents of Anna Nagar. Every month, three wards of Kilpauk zone are added. It is hoped that the entire zone will be covered by March. Later, Saidapet and Nungambakkam zones will be covered. “The same goes for the suburbs that will form part of Greater Chennai,” the official said.
Every day, the notified grounds in Perungudi and Kodungaiyur receive at least 1,800 tonnes of unsegregated waste each, collected from five zones in north and south Chennai. With the threat to the environment being highlighted, locals have been holding protests, including blocking conservancy vehicles. In vain. The dumping continues.
When the city’s limits are extended, the corporation would have to face the additional challenges of tackling dumping of waste in an unregulated manner in the suburbs as well. Although most panchayats and municipalities have an independent mechanism in place for waste disposal, most areas have not been able to evolve an efficient system. In Perungudi, residents have been waging a legal battle against the corporation to get rid of the garbage from the yard. “After these areas become part of Greater Chennai, we will not allow waste from the suburban areas to reach the Perungudi yard,” says K Periasamy of Thoraipakkam. The locals accuse officials of not meeting the Union environment ministry’s Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Land Filling) Rules, 2000.
There has been little progress on the proposed integrated solid waste management programme announced by the corporation two years ago. “It still remains on paper, except that the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) has been approached for clearance. The State Environment Impact Assessment Authority has been sitting on the file for months now,” sources say.
