By Vaishnavi Narasimhan

Chennai has many environmental assets, including around 3000 water bodies. Some of these include:

1)      A long sea coast with two tidal creeks – The Adyar Creek and Ennore Creek.

2)      The second largest lagoon in India – the Pulicat Lake.

3)      Several other lakes, such as Redhills, Chembarambakkam, Poondi, Cholavaram and Porur.

4)      Many Estuaries and backwaters, such as the Adyar Estuary and Creek.

5)      Weltands and Swamps – Pallikaranai, Oggian Madugu, Madavaram and Ennore.

6)      And a large number of smaller lakes, eris, ponds and several temple tanks.

So why do we still face severe water shortages in the city?

Over the years, these water bodies have shrunk due to various reasons. Water bodies are generally viewed as sources of irrigation and drinking water and not environmental assets. Therefore, lakes and rivers that do not provide water for irrigation or drinking are often reclaimed as wastelands, without considering their ecological significance.

Furthermore, rapid urbanization and industrialization has led to large scale encroachment into water bodies. Houses, apartment complexes and buildings are built over lakes and eris, causing them to perish and obstructing the flow of water. With real estate and land prices skyrocketing, people are scrambling to get their hands on any piece of land, and often end up building on areas where lakes used to exist not so long ago. This is, incidentally, also one of the major reasons for severe flooding during the monsoons. Encroachment into water bodies also severely reduces the potential for groundwater recharge. Even though Chennai receives an average rainfall of 129cm, well above the national average, encroachment allows only 5% of this water to percolate into the ground. Furthermore, we have already exploited about 80% of our ground water and experts fear that any more extraction from the ground could lead to salt water ingression (movement of salt water into fresh water reservoirs due to a pressure gradient).

This is a 65-year old map that shows the locations of several water bodies. The gray areas of the map represent eris, or small ponds. The gray water bodies are seasonal, in that they appear during the rainy seasons and remain dry during the rest of the year. Comparison of this map with a more recent map will show that several of these water bodies have shrunk and several have completely disappeared.

Map showing waterbodies

Do you ever wonder where all your trash ends up? We throw tons of garbage into our trash cans everyday and completely forget about it. It seems to magically disappear out of our homes and we never have to deal with it again. At least, that’s what I thought until I went on a “Garbage Yatra’ all across north Chennai.

As one of Transparent Chennai’s initiatives, I went about looking for dump sites all over north Chennai. Mr. Paramanandam, a very knowledgeable field worker from Exnora, was gracious enough to take me around the city to examine the solid waste management situation. Paramanandam explained that there are four steps to disposal of garbage. The first step is Primary Collection, which involves picking up garbage from each doorstep on every street. Smaller vehicles are used for easier accessibility. These vehicles assemble at a collection point where they transfer the garbage to larger vehicles. Garbage is then taken to transfer stations and temporarily placed at these locations. A transfer station is a site used for the temporary deposition of garbage, before it is transported to a larger landfill. Gargage in Chennai is taken to one of 8 transfer stations. Each zone is assigned a particular transfer station. Garbage from all of the transfer stations then taken to one of two major dump sites in Chennai – Kodungaiyur in the north and Perungudi in the South. However, I learned on the field trip that there are several other unofficial dump sites all over the city, apart from Kodungiyur and Perungudi.

Paramanandam explained to me that solid waste management in the city is a huge disaster. The problem arises because of Chennai’s large population and sizable floating population, consisting of traders and workers traveling in and out of the city on a daily basis. Chennai churns out around 3500 tonnes of garbage each day. The Chennai city corporation clears our around 65% of this garbage everyday, but is unable to handle the rest due to lack of man power and facilities. Additionally, residents fail to comply with garbage pick-up times, by not putting out their garbage before 7:30am, as per the Corporation’s schedule. Hence, the remaining 35% of garbage ends up along road sides, in water bodies and even storm water drains. Thus, residents of Chennai are posed which a host of serious problems, such as mosquitoes, ground water pollution, diseases and flooding.

Our first stop was the Basin Bridge Transfer station. I couldn’t help but notice the putrid air around us as soon as we got close to the transfer station. There was a large slum across the street from the transfer station. The slum dwellers, I was told, use the station as a public toilet everyday, making living conditions around the area worse than it already is. I was warned against taking pictures or notes conspicuously at the transfer station. I noticed a few trucks going in and out of the station, carrying mounds of garbage. I was told that all of this garbage is taken to the dump yard un-segregated. Though small efforts have been made at separating degradable and non-degradable garbage, the corporation does not have the resources or the willingness to handle this effectively and ends up mixing the garbage together before transferring it to the dump yards.

After basin bridge, we drove along the harbor on Raypuram Beach Road in north Chennai. The beauty of the harbor was marred by islands of garbage all along the coast. We then drove up to Ennur and stopped at the Ennur thermal power station. Every so often, I would notice small bodies of water along the side of the road covered with water lilies and other beautiful vegetation. Most of them were either entirely covered with garbage or were on their way to becoming unofficial dump sites. Paramanandam explained, that water bodies are often the first place where industrial wastes get dumped. The highly industrialized northern part of Chennai suffers from severe ground and surface water pollution.

We continued on to a few municipalities and town panchayats in north Chennai. Most of north Chennai seemed to be underdeveloped with respect to infrastructure and urban development. Garbage in each of these local bodies is managed separately from the corporation. There was a common theme to all of these municipalities and panchayats – poor waste management. Garbage seemed to be everywhere, blanketing ponds and lakes, and burning in mounds on the side of the road.

The climax of our trip was the visit to the 360-acre Kodungiyur dump yard – one of two huge official dumpsites in Chennai, where half of Chennai’s garbage ends up. I could smell the stench at this site well before we got close to it. The yard was enclosed by a large wall that extended far and wide to hide the awful site that lay within. Unfortunately, I was strictly forbidden from taking pictures. I took a quick peak into the yard and saw huge mountains of garbage for miles. The weight of the garbage that is dumped by each truck is measured before it goes into the yard. New garbage is constantly dumped over existing garbage, and no initiatives are taken to clear the old garbage and rehabilitate the dump site.

One of our last stops was the Koyambedu market dump, which is a large, unofficial dump site that is not handled by the Chennai corporation or any municipalities or panchayats. This dump sites houses all of the degradable waste that comes out of one of Asia’s largest perishable goods markets. Paramanandam described this waste as “good garbage,” because it could be composted and used to produce energy. However, it rots in a large ground at the moment.

Koyembedu Market

The Koyambedu Market dump

The field trip showed me that the trash that we throw out does not disappear out of our lives, but affects us every day by befouling our roads, polluting air and water, causing diseases and, finally, destroying the beauty of our city. According to Paramanandam, the first step to better solid waste management is for residents to say no to garbage. A few tips that he gave me were to carry your own bag when you go grocery shopping and avoid using plastic bags, buy items with minimal packaging, avoid purchasing disposable items, reuse items such as plastic or glass bottles, newspaper, etc, recycle, and compost your kitchen waste.

Written by Vaishnavi Narasimhan