When Perungudi was carelessly chosen as a dump site way back in 1987, it was obvious that the government gave scant regard to the ecologically sensitive marshland of Pallikarnai-a hot spot for biodiversity that was situated right next to it. Ever since, the marshland has shrunk in size and the sewage treatment facility that is located nearby only makes matters worse for the flora and fauna of Pallikarnai. Studies that were conducted around Perungudi produced alarming results. The level of dioxins and furans that were found in breast milk samples collected from the vicinity were 25 times higher than WHO’s recommended limit. Dioxins are by-products of industrial process and municipal solid waste and are said to be one of the most harmful chemicals to humans.  Adding to these distressing results is the fact that the effects of such an ‘unengineered’ dump yard stretches for miles around and is not just contained in Perungudi.

The government’s policy towards waste management has the reputation of being knee-jerk reactions, and might have still continued to be so if it wasn’t for the introduction of the ‘Municipal Solid Wastes (Management & Handling) Rules’ in 2000. It took a PIL for the country to realise the disastrous path that it was following and change tracks. The ruling makes source segregation, door to door waste collection, abolition of open storage, daily sweeping of streets, transportation of waste in covered vehicles, waste processing by energy recovery or composting and sanitary landfills mandatory.

With Chennai having the highest per capita waste generation rate in the country (.6kg a day), well-planned, long-term solutions is the need of the hour. Solid waste management in the city is the responsibility of the Corporation of Chennai. The CoC has also been the first in t he country to allow private players into the dirty business. With public-private partnerships gaining popularity, the DMK government ushered in CES Onyx into 3 of the 10 zones in the city in 2000(-a good move considering the following figures, that the total cost for street sweeping, collection and transportation per Metric ton of waste for CoC and Onyx was approximately USD 33 and 25, respectively. Also CoC handled 2000 tonnes per day with a manpower of 10,000 including administrative staff and workers, while Onyx managed 1100 tonnes with a manpower of just 2000). Exnora also forayed into the picture by encouraging CBOs and it easily gained patronage from communities as they appreciated the benefits of environmentally-safe handling of waste.

Dumpyards find themselves at the end of the waste management process and are perennially overflowing with unthinkably enormous proportions of the city’s trash. Should the process really stop there? Will creating n number of dumpyards be a solution to the garbage problem of a country that’s growing at alarming rates? Recent estimates show that approximately 48 million tons of urban solid waste is generated annually in India and is increasing by approximately 1.3% each year.  With all this garbage around, a new approach to waste management is being encouraged by the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources. The ‘National Programme on Energy Recovery  from Urban Wastes’  was initiated in  1995 to  develop the waste-to energy market. This approach not only results in a substantial reduction in the area that is ear marked for dump sites but it also addresses the acute power shortage that we face. In a report brought out by Frost and Sullivan, it was predicted that the Indian municipal solid waste (MSW) to energy market could be growing at a compound rate of growth of 9.7% by 2013.

Taking all of this into account, a long term solution to real waste management must include steps to reduce garbage generated at the household level through means like recycling and also encourage segregation of garbage and even compost pits for bio-degradable waste at the community level. But private operators like Onyx or presently Neel Metal Fanalca lack the incentive to segregate garbage as they are paid based on the weight of garbage collected, and fines are rarely levied for non-segregation although it is part of their contract. Instead they blame the public for their lack of awareness on the issue.

Ever since Neel Metal Fanalca found its way into the city, Chennai’s residents have only had harsh words to describe its work. The city quite visibly became dirtier with NMF’s arrival and there were even instances where their workers had the audacity to ask for tips to clean streets. It was pretty sad as Chennai was just beginning to see the effects of what a well managed and efficiently run SWM operator could. The citizens of Chennai uniformly agreed that CES Onyx’s performance was far better than the Corporation’s, but much to the city’s dismay, it was shown the door. Why you may ask?-it refused to give in to the new government’s ‘demands’ and this meant that their contract would not be renewed. With the change in government in the State in May, it might be safe to say that we can again expect the incumbent private solid waste management (SWM) company to be kicked out and a new entrant having greased the hands of the new government, mine riches for itself via the city’s overflowing garbage.

References:

Municipal Solid Waste Management in Chennai City, India :S Esakku,A swaminathan, O Parthiba Karthikeyan, J Kurian and K Palanivelu   http://www.swlf.ait.ac.th/UpdData/International/NRIs/MSW%20management%20in%20Chennai.pdf

Public, Private and Voluntary Agencies in Solid Waste Management,A Study in Chennai City by Krithika Srinivasan http://www.kcl.ac.uk/content/1/c6/04/27/08/swmepw.pdf

Capacity-to-Act in India’s Solid Waste Management and Waste-to Energy Industries by Perinaz Bhada http://www.seas.columbia.edu/earth/wtert/sofos/Bhada_Capacity_to_Act_in_India.pdf

http://www.kleanindustries.com/s/environmental_market_Industry_news.asp?ReportID=452731

http://digitaljourno.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/payment-calculation.pdf

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Maria Terase, student of BA(H) Economics, currently interning at Transparent Chennai

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