LIVING IN GARBAGE – A SNEAK PEAK INTO THE KODUNGAIYUR DUMPYARD

All of us use garbage bins in our homes. We also make sure that whatever we don’t want to have inside the house is disposed off into the garbage bin. But have you ever wondered where all of this goes after it is taken out of your house?

It was a revelation which our noses detected before our eyes did when we visited the Kodungaiyur dump yard in Chennai as part of our environment elective field visit.

Photo Courtesy: K.V. Srinivasan/The Hindu

Kodungaiyur, a 400- acre dump yard situated in the middle of a residential area, is the largest dump yard in Chennai, collating waste from the whole of central and north Chennai. The residents of the area, not only have to live with the dreadful stench but endure with the insects, allergies and diseases that accompany it. Periodic burning of garbage further aggravates the nuisance and the smoke causes respiratory problems to the people, especially children, living there.

It is unbelievable that although the Rule 8 of site selection criteria under Schedule III of Municipal Solid Waste Handling Rules (MSWHR), 2000 states, “The landfill site shall be away from habitation clusters, forest areas, water bodies, monuments, National Parks, Wetlands and places of important cultural, historical or religious interest”, in Kodungaiyur which is a wetland, “rehabilitated” slum dwellers live in small, dingy flats located right opposite the dump in Kannadasan Nagar, barely 50 meters away!

A. Pandurangan, President of the Kannadasa Nagar Citizens Welfare Association says, “There are no thick walls for the dump and often when it rains, sewage seeps into our homes. Our children suffer from respiratory diseases because of indiscriminate burning of garbage and this has not stopped despite us filing numerous public interest litigations.”

Since its inception in 1989, these residents have been suffering and submitting numerous complaints against the illegal dumping (they claim that only 65 acres was allotted by the corporation to dump waste) and burning of waste, all of which has gone into the deaf ears of the Chennai Corporation, who has not taken the slightest move to solve this problem. Kodungaiyur is an easier solution for them as they can save up on the fuel charge for transporting it far away from the city.

Even bio-medical waste from Governement Hospital, Kilpauk Medical College Hospital and Stanley Hospital is regularly dumped in Kodungaiyur and this attracts stray dogs who often carry them out of them dump and strew them on the streets. This is also against the MSWHR which has a clause that says “Biomedical wastes and industrial wastes shall not be mixed with municipal solid wastes and such wastes shall follow the rules separately specified for the purpose”

The garbage problem at Kodungaiyur, sadly, is not a second grade math problem which has one definite solution. A solution needs to be arrived at, which will address the problems of a number of communities living in the area.

On both sides of the road that led to another part of the dump, we saw a number of people who actually made a living out of the dump. There was a dark little room where 2 men were making ladles and spoons out of the steel collected from the dump and rag pickers segregating recyclable material to sell. There are even news reports that medicines from the dump that have crossed the expiry dates are finding their way back to the chemist stores!

As we were examining the miserable state of the dump, an old lady passed by us. She, thinking that we were people who were trying to close down the dump, exclaimed “who will feed our children if you close down the dump?” Her question is valid indeed and closing down the dump will definitely render a huge number of people who earn their bread because of the dump, jobless. But what we need to understand is that they are not rag-pickers by choice. They will definitely support the close-down if they are provided a better way to live and earn, not just a promise but an immediate action.

The garbage problem in our country can be resolved or at least brought under control only if segregation of waste is done effectively. 75 percent of wastes from homes contain bio-degradable kitchen waste, which if treated properly can be composted and used as manure. The problem of plastic can be dealt with only by educating the common man the dangers it poses to our planet. People should be induced into the habit of segregating waste.Just creating laws without implementation and regular inspections doesn’t help.

Kodungaiyur is just one example. There are so many more all around our country. We, as citizens can make a change. The keyword is ‘SEGREGATE’.

Let us start from our own kitchens.

  

Reference:

http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/25/stories/2010032561540300.htm

http://www.sipcotcuddalore.com/downloads/choking_in_garbage_II.pdf