Shutting down Chennai’s dump yards, what comes next?
For the last 30 years or more, several petitions have been filed to shut down Chennai’s official dumpsites, Perungudi and Kodungaiyur. But how feasible is such a proposal? Who answers the hundreds of families that had so long made a living out of the dump yards?
Chennai, March 27: A bunch of teenagers share a laugh, as one of them pushes another on a pile of junk. A stern look from their supervisor and they are back at work.
The Perungudi dump yard is a shelter to a number of such adolescents who choose rag-picking over school. Forced by circumstances, these children take up their family business of rag-picking, mentions Murugavel, Chief Engineer at Perungudi dump yard. “Families from nearby slum settlements have been coming to the dump yard for work for around 20 years now. They employ their kids into the business at an early age for the extra money,” he says.
Alike Perungudi, the Kodungaiyur dumpsite, existent for around 40 years, is a source of income to around 200 ragpickers. Not only ragpickers, but the state’s entire scrap business thrives on the huge amount of garbage dumped in Perungudi and Kodungaiyur landfills on a daily basis.
According to the statistics shared by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC), of the 5400 metric tonnes of solid waste generated per day, 2400–2600 metric tonnes of waste is dumped daily in Perungudi, and 2600–2800 metric tonnes in Kodungaiyur. The GCC has allotted 200 acres in Perungudi and 269 acres in Kodungaiyur for dumping waste.
Over the years, numerous petitions have been filed by the residents living around Perungudi and Kodungaiyur, for shutting down of the dump yards.
But who stand to benefit from the shutdown? Probably the residents living near the landfills and the flora and fauna that have been harmed by the incessant dumping of toxic waste in the area.
Rule 2 of site selection rules of Schedule III of the Municipal Solid Waste Handling Rules, 2000, states, Selection of landfill sites shall be based on examination of environmental issues.
Rule 8 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.”
Both Perungudi and Kodungudi dump yards have become toxic hotspots of the city, flouting several norms laid out by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
The Perungudi dump yard, which originally covered 19 acres in Sevaram village in 1970, was shifted to the Pallikaranai wetland-turned-landfill by mid-1980. The Pallikaranai marsh that initially covered 12,000 acres had shrunk to 1,470 acres by 2002.
As per a study by the SIPCOT Area Community Environmental Monitors group on the ambient air sample collected downwind of the garbage dump in Pallikaranai, in December 2005, the air contained at least 27 chemicals, 15 of which hugely exceeded health-based standards set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Out of these 27 chemicals, three are known to cause cancer and were found to be 34,000 times above safe levels.
The unabated burning of garbage in Perungudi dump yard, despite court orders, led to a decline in estuarine fauna and migratory birds nesting in the marshland.
However, shutting down of the dump yards raises multiple questions on the feasibility of such a move and the loss of livelihood of the ragpickers and scrap dealers.
Asked about what he will do if the Perungudi dumpsite shuts down, Vinayaga Murthy, 40, who has been picking daily from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Perungudi dump yard for 20 years now, says, “We haven’t been informed of such a thing. We will all protest against the decision.”
Anthony Raj, who has been in the scrap dealing business for the past 16 years and now works with Chennai Metal Scrap, a scrap dealing firm, for the past 4.5 years, said that he has seen the scrap business flourishing due to the increased waste generation over the years. “The segregated plastic is taken to Pulianthope for processing. Discarded metal parts are mostly purchased by recyclers from Pondicherry, and steel by retailers from Delhi and Mumbai,” he mentioned.
Since the GCC is not involved in waste segregation, neither at source, nor at the dumping sites, the entire recycling market thrives as a result of the thankless job of the rag-picking community. The people in this profession are least aware of the health hazards they are exposed to on a daily basis.
Ganesan Perumal, a resident at Kodungaiyur for the past 40 years, has been actively involved in raising concerns of the rag-picking community and improper waste management at Kodungaiyur dump yard. Talking about the unavailability of livelihood options for these pickers, Ganesan says, “Each of them makes around Rs 400–500 per day. No other job will pay them this much for their skillset. They are hesitant to quit their current profession and hardly pay heed to counsel.”
The next major concern questions the alternative option that would be adopted in case the corporation shuts down the dumpsites.
In a recent move by the GCC in December 2019, scrapping away its earlier idea of landfill capping, it proposed the bio-remediation of both the dump yards at Rs. 1,250 crores.
While tenders have been issued to get rid of the existing waste through setting up of four bio-CNG centres, incineration and pyrolysis, there yet lingers a question: where in future, will the city’s ever-expanding waste go? Probably the GCC will again look for sites suitable for disposal of huge amounts of waste, preferably on the outskirts of the city, now that it has learned its lesson of not meddling with influential and literate sections of the society.
So, maybe this time, a lesser educated and influential area will be chosen to bear the brunt of the city’s toxic disposal, loaded in carriers and transported to far-off localities, such that the privileged no more need to bear the stench and water pollution due to their own waste. Given the advantaged sections get access to clean air and water in their luxurious flats built on encroached marshland; it will surely save some time of the judges who have got tired of hearing countless petitions to shut the dump yards, for the last two decades.
