‘Scrap waste-to-energy incinerator project at Kodungaiyur dumpyard’

CHENNAI: After the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) submitted a proposal to set-up the waste-energy incinerators at Kodungaiyur dumping ground, over 20 organisations, along with north Chennai residents, urged the local body to scrap the project citing various factors including health and environment.

They pointed out ecological concerns such as the toxic ash that would be dumped in the forest and low-lying areas thereby affecting groundwater.

Several organisations including Poovulagin Nanbargal, Vyasai Thozhargal, Chennai Climate Action Group, Kodungaiyur Thozhargal, Exnora and residents of north Chennai have submitted a petition to Corporation Commissioner J Kumaragurubaran on Tuesday to discontinue the plan of setting up an incinerator at Kodungaiyur dumpyard, which would produce hazardous ash and pollute the environment.

The Corporation has proposed to burn 2,100 tons of mixed solid waste and generate electricity from waste-to-energy incinerators to manage the waste in Chennai. However, the burnt waste produces toxic ash that’s harmful for the public especially for those with respiratory ailments.

It’s noteworthy that the project is a failure in New Delhi, as it’s one of the main reasons for high air pollution for all these years.

The civic body generates over 7,600 tonnes of garbage every day, but more than 5,300 tonnes have been transferred and dumped at Kodungaiyur and Perungudi dumpyards. “According to the Chennai Climate Action Plan report, though Chennai has a processing capacity of 2,460 tonnes/day, it processes only 637 tonnes at these facilities. It has an abysmally low capacity utilisation of just 26%; increasing it could help in reducing about 1,800 tonnes of garbage from reaching the landfills,” said Geo Damien of Poovulagin Nanbargal.

However, going against its own Solid Waste Management By-laws (2019), which mandates source segregation and decentralised waste management, the GCC announced the setting up of a centralised waste-to-energy (WTE) plant in Kodungaiyur to burn around 2,100 tonnes of mixed waste per day.

“The recent tendering process for the WTE incineration project in Chennai has revealed that Delhi MSW Solutions (Ramky group), a repeat environmental polluter, is likely to win the project. The company has also been fined by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee for excess release of cancer-causing dioxins and other chemical components,” Damien added.

Activists are concerned about the livelihood of the public residing near the landfills. Since the PET bottles, paper, cardboard and glass would be sent to the incinerators to be recovered and recycled, waste collectors would lose access to these materials and their sources of income.

“Biomining is being introduced to reduce the waste at landfills but eventually this process had also affected the livelihoods of few deprived communities. A report by Centre for Equity Studies and Yoda Press – India Exclusion Report 2016 released in 2017 revealed that rag pickers who collect, sort, segregate and trade the waste to earn a living have cleaned up significant proportion of the 62 million tonnes of waste generated annually in India,” opined Joel Shelton, a social activist. “But the biomining process prevents rag pickers from earning their livelihoods.”

Similarly, residents of Kodungaiyur lament over the health issues they would suffer from if the incinerator is allowed at the dumpyard. Already, we’ve been suffering from living in such an unhygienic environment due to the piled up garbage at the landfill for over 30 years. Adding an incinerator to this would worsen the situation here,” rued a resident.

Jayanthi Premchandar, member of Valmiki Nagar Residents Welfare Association, averred that due to lack of solid waste management in the city, the State government has proposed this project to burn waste and pollute the environment. “A recent article by the New York Times has shown how the WTE incinerators in Delhi have contributed to the city’s poor air quality, causing health issues by releasing heavy metals more than 19 times the prescribed limit and impacting 1 million people. If they implement the project here, the city will witness a similar situation,” added Jayanthi.

Activists and residents urge the local body to scrap the project and move towards sustainable waste management practices such as systemic transformations in the waste management sector including capping the production of single-use plastics, lower consumption, source segregation, and decentralised processing. In response to their petition, the Corporation Commissioner stated that they would analyse and take steps accordingly.