THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The decision of the City Corporation and the State Government to dump the waste generated in the city at 22 identified revenue lands, including school and hospital compounds, is a gross violation of the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 and Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules 2000. Furthermore, experts in waste management point out that the method is unscientific and a permanent solution should be charted out immediately to solve the garbage menace. The City Corporation is yet to get the mandatory permission from the Kerala State Pollution Control Board for landfilling of garbage at 22 identified places, though it is termed a part of the crisis management plan. Pollution Control Board (PCB) Chairman K Sajeevan said that the City Corporation had not yet consulted the Board regarding the landfilling of garbage. “The Corporation has not shared any details to the Board regarding the landfilling of waste at 22 spots. We will check how the Corporation is carrying out the work and then take adequate steps,” he said. R Ajayakumar Varma of the Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS) said the decision to close down the Vilappilsala plant all of a sudden was a political blunder. “It seems the Government is planning to use revenue land to dump waste in the interim period. This is not a permissible activity as per the Environment (Protection) Act 1986. The Vilappilsala residents were earlier agreeable for setting up the plant with enough amenities and operational perfection. The Corporation agreed to this and initiated action with the help of the Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project (KSUDP). But inordinate delay in construction and poor enforcement of operational guidelines forced the Vilappilsala residents to take the present stand,” he said. Varma said that the State Government had a responsibility to intervene and see that the constructions under the KSUDP are completed in a time-bound manner and that the Corporation is enforcing the operational guidelines properly. “Instead of doing this, all of a sudden the local body decided to close down the plant, which seems intriguing. It is true that the local population at Villappilsala is suffering a lot from the poor operational practice of the plant. This is a technical issue, and it is a problem due to negligence of simple operational guidelines. This could have been overcome by ensuring appropriate facilities for odour control and water treatment and enforcing appropriate operational guidelines,” said Varma. According to M Dileep Kumar, director, Solid Waste Management, Sanitation Mission, waste dumping at 22 identified spots by way of landfilling is not a scientific way of dumping the waste. “It should be only be a temporary method just for some days and an immediate solution to the present crisis should be found out. If the waste is left on the roadsides, there is the danger of the outbreak of epidemics. Such a situation should be avoided at any cost,” he said. However, B Sreekumar, Health Officer of the City Corporation, said that most of the places out of the 22 selected locations were seven metres away from any water body as the law stipulates. “Only organic waste will be dumped in the 22 spots and Kudumbashree workers have been instructed to return plastic during the segregation of waste from source. We have asked the workers to wash the plastic waste and to return it to the particular house from where it was collected,” he said.
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