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Chennai’s garbage crisis - challenges and road ahead

Tue, 17/10/2017 - 10:21

The garbage situation today

Chennai has the highest per-capita garbage generation rate in the country at 710 gm per person per day.[1] Streets everywhere are overflowing with garbage and this has become an accepted eyesore by one and all. Residences near the Chennai waste yards at Kodungaiyur and Perungudi are being subject to several health hazards from air pollution, leachates, and groundwater contamination. These two waste yards have reached full capacity several years ago. To address the overall situation, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is planning to privatise 70% of its conservancy operations to deal with staff shortages and the 5,000 MT of garbage generated in the city per day. Currently, 3 of the 15 zones, namely Adyar, Kodambakkam and Teynampet are privatised in Chennai. The Corporation’s decision towards privatisation is being much debated. It is also reported that GCC plans to use waste-to-energy incinerators – which are serious health risks. As consumerism has set in within citizens and the industrial and commercial boom continues the march forward unabated, the coming next few years will be important to note whether Chennai can steer the course permanently towards a sustainable approach to solid waste management. The Greater Chennai Corporation’s mandate to segregate waste at source starting October 2, 2017 is a welcome change that may very well correct the course of the waste management issue.

The privatisation of conservancy work

The Chennai Corporation first privatised garbage clearance in the year 2000 and gave the contract to Onyx Private Limited for 5 years. This success motivated them to continue private services with firms Neel Metal Fanalca and Ramky Enviro Engineers Pvt. Ltd. But these contractors had not been as successful as the first.[2] In a recent stakeholders’ meeting held by the GCC in June 2017, many residents of Retteri and Madipakkam localities have voiced protests against privatisation.[3] Complaints abound that wages have not been paid to areas’ conservancy staff for three months and that conservancy workers in currently privatised zones were not working satisfactorily.

The incumbent GCC Commissioner Dr. D. Karthikeyan has stated that privatisation may not necessarily be as efficient a remedy as people assume. He remarked that solid waste management system has been “completely messed up” by Ramky Enviro Engineers Pvt. Ltd and that maximum penalties are being imposed on them to address the deficiencies in service provision.[4] He also explained that contractors’ payment is presently based just on tonnage of waste collected and carried, and thereby does not encourage cleanliness at all. The existing SWM contract with private firms ends in year 2018. Going forward, payments in the coming term would make service delivery criteria such as cleaning bins, street-sweeping, etc. mandatory for contractors to receive payment.4

Mandatory Source Segregation Started!

On October 2, 2017, the Greater Chennai Corporation launched its praiseworthy initiative of collecting segregated waste from homes, institutions and commercial establishments in all 15 zones, to implement the provisions of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. GCC has directed all its 16,004 conservancy workers to stop collecting recyclable wastes daily. The workers will collect only biodegradable wastes daily and will visit homes to collect recyclable wastes only on Wednesdays. To educate all on this, GCC conducted awareness drives in all zones, distributed pamphlets and advised bulk waste generators. As many as 5,714 bulk generators, including hotels and gated communities have been asked to manage waste on their premises. Bulk generators are to be given two to three months time to develop facilities for managing the waste. According to estimates, the amount of municipal solid waste dumped everyday in Perungudi and Kodungaiyur waste yards can be reduced by 30% in two months.[5]

The Manali success story

Even in the midst of the apathy from Chennai citizens as regards wanton garbage dumping, besides staffing within the Corporation, there is an oasis of hope – such as Manali in North Chennai.5 The streets here are extremely clean since the past four years, thanks to the source segregation at home programme introduced by Corporation officers in the Chennai North Region. Now the number of bins has been reduced to half and volume of garbage generated from households has gone down significantly.5 About 50 to 60 % of the households segregate waste at home by dividing organic and inorganic wastes into two bags or bins.

Here, residents themselves invested in containers showing that public support and dedicated administrative drive together can transform the garbage eyesore into a success! Segregated organic waste is turned into compost manure and sold locally. There is a bio-gas generation facility within a municipal school that converts vegetable waste from bulk producers such as hotels and shops into bio-gas for cooking mid-day meals for their school. Another feature is a vermi-composting unit that sells manure to nurseries and individuals. Medicinal plants are grown in the Manali community using this manure. The Corporation engineer’s accessibility by personal visits and the Corporation staff’s enthusiasm, their responsiveness through telephones to garbage-related complaints and periodic training sessions by staff on importance and ease of source segregation have been key factors in obtaining cooperation of the local people. Mr. Praveen Nair, the Regional Deputy Commissioner-North Region until June-2017, was confident that this model could be scaled up to the Chennai city.[6] The Manali success story is a good system that can lead to a zero waste community eventually.

The road ahead

Mandatory source segregation: With 68% of the daily municipal wastes being from residential sources[7], source segregation at home is essential to reduce the waste load generated daily that are needlessly sent to the landfills. Hence, segregation at source must be made mandatory. As per the Central Government’s Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2000, later amended to Solid Waste Management Rules 2016, “every waste generator shall segregate and store the waste generated by them in 3 separate streams namely bio‐degradable, non‐biodegradable and domestic hazardous wastes in suitable bins, and handover these segregated wastes to authorized rag‐pickers or waste collectors”.[8]

The recently initiated mandatory source segregation by GCC is a very welcome move. The GCC Commissioner and Special Officer Dr. D. Karthikeyan said the response to source segregation was good on the starting day. However, it must be supported by all consistently to achieve its target objectives.

As Exnora founder, M. B. Nirmal states, there is a critical need to manage as much waste at source i.e., home - because the moment you shift waste management to street levels, the problem gets multiplied manyfold. Also, people have to be positively motivated to cooperate – negative sanctions such as warnings or fines tend to backfire.[9] 

Awareness and Equipment: Conservancy workers must be trained and empowered not to accept unsegregated waste from the homes and educated on the importance of not mixing already segregated waste back. The latter is a frustrating problem in Chennai where segregated waste is mixed after collection.  To avoid this, conservancy staff should also have the requisite number of bins to collect segregated waste.

Redesigning full waste transport/transfer process: The number of street bins must be considerably reduced and people are to be well instructed to hand over segregated garbage to conservancy staff as a rule instead of dumping in bins or roadsides. Biodegradable waste needs to be carried to the nearest biogas plant or composting yard, while recyclables should be transferred to collection points. Medical and inert wastes must be collected separately for the landfill.6

Create civic examples: Unless key sections of the Chennai community are made aware of the present garbage crisis and risks, it will continue to remain somebody else’s headache. Chennai’s RWAs (Residents Welfare Associations), schools, medical establishments, places of worship and non-profit institutions need to unite together as role models for sustainable waste management so that other bulk waste producers such as business and industrial community, entertainment and official establishments can follow accordingly.

 

[2] “17 private companies line up to clean Chennai streets”, Times of India, Jul 27, 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/17-private-companies-line-up-to-clean-Chennai-streets/articleshow/15181478.cms

[3]“Residents oppose privatisation of conservancy operations”, Times of India, Chennai, Jun 28, 2017, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/residents-oppose-privatisation-of-conservancy-operations/articleshow/59346035.cms

[4] “Chennai to focus on overall service parameters in new SWM contract: GCC Commissioner”, INTERVIEW, August 18, 2017, http://chennai.citizenmatters.in/gcc-commissioner-karthikeyan-on-waste-management-2496

[5] “Corpn. starts collecting segregated waste", Aloysius Xavier Lopez, Chennai, October 03, 2017 01:09 IST, Updated: October 03, 2017 01:09 IST, http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/corpn-starts-collecting-segregated-waste/article19787328.ece

[6]“What Manali can teach the rest of Chennai about waste”, (WASTE MANAGEMENT CHRONICLE), February 16, 2017, http://chennai.citizenmatters.in/waste-segregation-and-management-in-manali-north-chennai-1619

[8]“Mandatory segregation? Great idea, but how can we implement it?”, SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT, September 15, 2017, http://chennai.citizenmatters.in/chennai-gcc-corporation-waste-segregation-at-source-2697

[9]“The man who introduced Chennai to waste segregation, much before anyone else”, CHANGEMAKER INTERVIEW, September 8, 2017, http://chennai.citizenmatters.in/interview-nirmal-exnora-chennai-waste-segregation-home-composting-2637

 

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