Source segregation has failed in the city, posing challenges related to the unscientific dumping of waste in Perungudi and Kodungaiyur yards.
According to the Chennai Corporation, 20% of the 17 lakh households in the city have been covered under the source segregation drive, but to little effect.
“We launched source segregation on October 2, 2017. We have covered 40 wards so far,” said an official of the Corporation.
While officials point to the unwillingness of residents to support source segregation in many neighbourhoods, residents’ associations allege that they rarely get any assistance in this regard from conservancy officials.
“We need bins for source segregation. The Corporation has not started door-to-door collection of segregated waste. Residents are ready to support the Corporation. Conservancy operations are determined by commercial establishments,” said V.S. Jayaraman, a resident of Motilal Street in T. Nagar.
The Chennai Corporation has developed facilities for composting the segregated waste at 200 locations in the city. It has appointed 45 unit-level officers of the rank of executive engineers to inspect conservancy operations in neighbourhoods. As many as 15 supervising officers have studied the challenges to source segregation in the 15 zones of the city.
“People are not cooperating,” said another Corporation official.
A handful of neighbourhoods have been supporting source segregation in each of the 15 zones. Manali zone is the first to implement 100% source segregation. “We have 100% door-to-door collection in Manali,” an official claimed.
The civic body has also started collecting segregated plastic waste every Wednesday from households. Last Wednesday, 480 tonnes of plastic waste was collected from all 15 zones. At least, 5,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste is generated every day in the city.
“Source segregation will reduce the load on dumpyards in Perungudi and Kodungaiyur. We will achieve 100% source segregation in a year,” an official said.