Green Agenda

CHENNAI: There is a new fragrance wafting across the corridors of Ripon Building. The earthy aroma indicating monsoon showers has added fragrance - of hope and expectation. It germinates from the promise of Clean Chennai made by Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in the run up to the recent civic elections. For, clean and green are co-terminus, isn’t it? It stems from the hope of course correction as the development path of the erstwhile DMK regime was fundamentally flawed.Under the DMK’s watch, the City Corporation had ambitious plans to improve the quality of environment. But most of them failed to deliver as they either had poor scientific understanding or were misdirected and addressed wrong issues. The result: more parks and green spaces mushroomed, but they were decorated with exotic alien plant species. Outside these green spots were piles of garbage — the contribution of local residents. More money was pumped into cleaning the waterways, but what got flushed out at the end of the process was the money itself and not the muck. Hi-tech, clean and ambitious projects like scientific landfills were proposed, but they were positioned in the most unscientific manner right in the middle of ecological hotspots.New Mayor Saidai S Duraisamy has the opportunity of cleaning up the mess in environment management and offering holistic solutions. The problems are not simple, but not insurmountable either.Source segregationFor starters, he needs to take a close look at the Municipal Solid Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000. Eleven years after the law came into force, the city hasn’t been able to enforce it. As a consequence, the authorities are fighting a losing battle against mounting garbage — 3,200 metric tonnes per day apart from 500 metric tonnes of debris, according to the Corporation statistics.Burning of waste in the dumpyards is an easy but wrong way of reducing on-site strain on resources as it affects the health of the people living in the vicinity and damages ecology. “Burning of waste in Kodungaiyur is an everyday affair,” says Ganesan, a resident of the area, who is fighting a long battle in the Madras High Court against the Corporation to shift the yard. Besides, the life of both dumpyards in Chennai - Kodungaiyur and Perungudi - is only till 2015. The civic authorities have not been able to zero in on any alternative site.Going forward, the city requires a scientific landfill. The idea was tossed around during the previous regime, but did not reach fruition mainly due to the civic body’s failure to enforce source segregation of waste. So, source segregation could perhaps be the starting point for the new mayor’s Clean Chennai task.Second, one of the scientific landfills has been planned in the most unscientific spot - right in the middle of the Pallikaranai marshland. However well planned and executed, experts say that the project will affect the ecosystem negatively by contaminating the soil and water. The challenge before the mayor is to find an alternative site for the landfill and relieve the pressure on the marshland.E-wasteAnother major problem is the management of electronic waste. With Chennai being the third-largest producer of e-waste in the country, the State has prepared its own e-waste policy, which is expected to be adopted very soon, according to IT department sources. The policy is to be executed by the Corporation and the Pollution Control Board. But unless the Corporation prepares a roadmap for executing the e-waste disposal system, it will have serious trouble brewing in its backyard in the form of illegal dismantlers who will end up polluting the surroundings resulting in hazards both for the workers and the people.Slo-Mo BhopalThe biggest challenge for Duraisamy lies in Northern end of the city where residential colonies are sandwiched between industries. Activists have been referring to the area as a ‘slow motion Bhopal’ due to its proximity to industries and threats of industrial disaster. The town planning department of the Corporation, in coordination with the CMDA, is mandated to classify areas as industrial and residential and discourage close mixing of the two to prevent disaster. “An accident like Bhopal, if it ever occurs in this area, will cause similar or may be far greater calamity,” says activist Madhumita Dutta in her report “Is North Chennai another Bhopal?”Besides, there are many big-ticket projects of the State government in which the City Corporation is a stakeholder, such as Cooum cleaning and restoration and in monitoring and enforcing Coastal Zone Regulations. Effectively addressing them would help ensure that the city is painted green.