Chennai: With piles of garbage forming man-made mountains in Kodungaiyur and Perungudi landfills, the Greater Chennai Corporation has failed miserably in managing waste in the city, posing an imminent environmental threat.
According to the Chennai Corporation data, only 199.58 tonnes (on average) of total 5,249 tonnes garbage collected in the city are being transported to scientific disposal and processing centres every day. In other words, the civic body has been converting only 4 percent of garbage into electricity, biogas and compost.
The 199.58 tonnes of garbage that reach processing centres is just 19 perc ent of 1,050 tonnes of garbage that are source segregated in the city. “The civic body also has been collecting dry wastes on every Wednesday. Source segregation is practised only 40 divisions of total 200 divisions,” the officials said.
The Chennai corporation also had directed the apartments that generate more than 100 kg of waste every day to compost in the premises, without sending to landfills. But the initiatives by the civic body has been oozing like water poured into a pot with holes.
It may be noted that the civic body had been implementing the waste management for over 15 years, though in papers, according to environmental activists. “For the last 15 years, the corporation has spent a huge amount of money. But the civic body had failed to sensitise the residents about the source segregation. The officials should conduct various types of awareness campaigns,” Jayaram Venkatesan, coordinator of Arappor Iyakkam said.
Meanwhile, the civic body data also elucidates that solid waste management department has been dumping 2800 to 3000 tonnes of garbage in 269-acre Kodungaiyur landfill every day. Also, due to the mismanagement Chennai Corporation, 200-acre Perungudi landfill has been receiving 2600 to 2800 tonnes of garbage per day. Nearly 1000 tonnes of construction debris also been dumped in the landfills.
Exposing the inability of city engineers in managing the waste, the civic body had tried unsuccessfully to set up processing units under various names. The integrated municipal solid waste processing facility in Kodungaiyur and solid waste management plants at both the landfills is yet to take off due to failure in availing environment clearances. Meanwhile, plans to set up an integrated municipal solid waste processing facility in Kuthambakkam have been shelved owing to the opposition.
In the meantime, the Chennai corporation officials had visited north Indian cities like Jabalpur, Indore, Bhopal and Ranchi, recently, to study the generation of electricity from wastes. “Mass incineration plants will be set in Kodungaiyur and Perungudi to produce 32MW power. Organic and non-organic garbage can be incinerated,” the officials said after the north India visit.
But, the activists opined that the mass incineration process would have its own problems. “The civic body is always looking for temporary solutions rather than a permanent one. The corporation should ensure primary level source segregation in every ward and secondary source segregation before sending to landfills. Wednesday collections are also not been done in many places,”Jayaram Venkatesan said.
Jayaram Venkatesan also urged the civic body to get away with garbage bins and start a door-to-door collection. “The residents remain less cooperative to the corporation because the officials had failed to sensitise the issue. The corporation also should give incentives to rag-pickers, who collects the non-degradable waste,” he added.
The Chennai Corporation data also suggest that 17,10,817 houses in the city generate 68 percent of total garbage every day.
