Chennai: Picture this. It is the year 2020. Chennai receives substantial amount of rainfall but, surprisingly, not a single area in the city is inundated. This is the utopian idea that the Greater Chennai Corporation has for the city as revealed in its projections to the Central Finance Commission. Not only will the corporation rid the city of stagnation, it has vowed to achieve 100 per cent source segregation and “scientifically dispose” off at least 50 per cent of the city’s municipal solid waste by 2020.
Consider the current state of affairs as submitted in the declaration by Commissioner: For instance, the city, despite generating over 6000 metric tonnes of waste a day, is segregating only 15 per cent of it. The corporation doesn’t even expect to begin with its scientific disposal idea in this year or the next. This, activists said, points to the local body’s slackness in dealing with what is very much an environmental crisis.
“The corporation only ever seems to work from budget cycle to budget cycle and this is why they have never managed to come up with a longer term plan [for solid waste management,” said environmental activist Dharmesh Shah. “For example, when the West is talking about waste reduction and diversion, we are still caught up with disposal. The difference in terminology tells you where we are and where we should be instead,” he added.
Although corporation officials pointed out that the local body would prefer to advocate zero waste concept to Chennaiites, the Ripon Buildings itself has found it difficult to get over past attitudes.
“For years, solid waste management has meant removing waste and disposing it elsewhere. The non-availability of labour and officials to supervise operations has also curtailed the scope of the solid waste department. Ideally, a recycling wing ought to be formed within the department and a workforce allotted for it. Until such ideas take shape, the projections will be hard to realise for us,” commented an official.
Residents, however, felt the corporation’s projections are too lofty. “Even if I segregate and give, the garbage collector ends up mixing it together. This sort of insensitivity to the efforts taken by very few citizens will only harm the process,” said R. Thenmaari, housewife and Adyar resident.
