Garbage incinerator removed from Chitlapakkam lake after NGT censure

“The Chitlapakkam municipality, before appended to newly Tambaram Corporation, had constructed an incinerator and a resource recovery centre on the Chitlapakkam lake bed. A trial run was conducted for a few days in November 2020 and the incinerator was closed after opposition from residents,” Dayanand Krishnan, an activist based in Chitlapakkam, said.

Meanwhile, the National Green Tribunal took up a suo moto case and ordered the district administration to remove the resource recovery centre and the incinerator. However, the district administration failed to take action, forcing the Tribunal to censure and order the removal of the facilities immediately.

An official said, following the order, the incinerator and resource recovery have been removed from the lake bed on November 30.

It may be noted that according to the solid waste management rules 2016, civic bodies should not set up solid waste processing facilities within 200 meters from water bodies. Also, waste processing facilities should not be installed in residential areas.

“Violating the rules, the municipality installed the facilities on the lake bed. Also, the resource recovery centre had been used as a dumping yard. Garbage was directly dumped into the lake,” Dayanand Krishnan recalled.

Chitlapakkam generates around 20 tonnes of garbage every day and the lake had been used as a dumping ground. Even after the resource recovery centre was removed, only around 50 per cent of the garbage dumped was removed from the lake.

It is also alleged that the erstwhile municipality administration did not avail no-objection from the public works department for using the lake as a dumping yard and from the pollution control board.