The Hindu 02.08.2013
New facility for waste awaits green nod
Environmental clearance will be obtained before starting Kuthambakkam plant: Corporation
The Chennai Corporation has informed the National Green
Tribunal (NGT) that environmental safeguards and approvals for the
proposed solid waste management facility at Kuthambakkam would be
obtained before starting any construction activity on the identified
land.
Corporation commissioner Vikram Kapur made this
assertion in response to an application filed by R. Arumugam, an
agriculturist and resident of the village, who alleged the proposed
facility would cause pollution in the area.
The NGT
Bench had granted an interim injunction restraining the civic body from
setting up such a facility on grazing land near Kuthambakkam, on the
city’s outskirts. The matter came up for hearing on Thursday.
Mr.
Kapur said, “The dumping grounds at Kodungaiyur have been in use for
more than three decades. Initially, there were not many habitation
clusters near the dumping grounds, but as days passed, residential
colonies proliferated. Further, these grounds are getting fully
exhausted.”
The Corporation was under pressure to
seek alternative sites for setting up facilities for processing and
disposing of waste in scientifically-designed sanitary landfill sites,
as per specifications laid down in the Municipal Solid Waste (Management
and Handling) Rules, 2000. The Corporation was already behind schedule
in setting up the waste processing facilities, he said.
He
said the Corporation had neither started any developmental activity nor
awarded the contract to any bidder. “The proposed facility is an
industrial activity and not crude garbage dumping. There are already
industries on the approach road to the proposed land site,” he said.
Seeking
dismissal of the application, he said the project would safeguard
against factors affecting the environment including contamination of
waterbodies, agricultural land and groundwater resources. The matter
will come up for further hearing on August 14.
Tribunal calls for Statewide measures
The
NGT also said it would direct authorities to evolve a comprehensive
plan to prevent illegal dumping of municipal waste across the State.
Hearing
applications filed against illegal dumping by local bodies, including
Pallavaram, Tambaram, and Rasipuram municipalities, in water bodies, the
Bench said it would ask the government, in due course, to identify
three sites in each of the districts for establishing solid waste
management facilities.
Stating that a monitoring
committee would be created to oversee the process, the Bench said, “What
we want to see is a scientific arrangement put in place so that
arbitrary dumping does not continue.”
