The civic body has not implemented 100 % source segregation in all the 100 wards in the city. It has not completed the process of scientifically closing the accumulated waste dumped in the open in Vellalore and not obtained mandatory approval for processing waste at Vellalore – these are not wild accusations against the Corporation but a status report by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB).
The Board filed the report before the Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which is hearing petitions filed by activists V. Eswaran of the MDMK and K.B. Mohan on the pollution the Corporation’s dump yard has caused in Vellalore.
At a hearing on Wednesday, the TNPCB threw light the Corporation’s track record in solid waste management and the report comes ahead of the Central Government’s Swachh Sarvekshan 2019 ranking.
The TNPCB report, which states the progress of promises the civic body had made to the Tribunal during previous hearings, says though the Corporation had promised to collect waste in segregated fashion at source (door to door collection) in all the 100 wards by December 31, 2017, it had not achieved the same.
The report indicts the Corporation for not furnishing a progress report on shifting a part of the accumulated waste to sanitary landfill and scientific closure of another part of the accumulated waste. The Corporation had earlier submitted to the NGT that it had begun the process of shifting 6.10 lakh cubic metre of accumulated waste to a sanitary landfill and would complete the task by December 2017.
The Corporation had also told the NGT that it was in the process of preparing a report for scientific closure of another part of the accumulated waste 9.40 lakh cubic metres and expected to start work by January 2018.
The TNPCB report, however, acknowledges the progress the Corporation had made in starting an additional waste processing plant of 600 tonnes per day by saying that the Corporation was in the process of building compound wall, weigh bridge and administrative building for the proposed plant.
The report also exposes the Corporation’s failure in not submitting a mandatory annual report for 2016-17, not obtaining from it [TNPCB] the consent to operate the existing waste processing plant, and not reporting the steps it had taken to mitigate the air and water pollution in the Vellalore dump yard’s vicinity.
The TNPCB had checked water and air samples at Vellalore in December 2017 and reported more than the permissible level of total dissolved solids, chlorides and phenolic compounds.
The TNPCB’s report also acknowledges a few steps the Corporation had taken like handing over plastic waste to recyclers and constructing compound wall on the eastern side of the Vellalore dump yard.
Corporation sources say that the TNPCB’s report could impact the Swachh Sarvekshan 2019 ranking as it punctures several of the Corporation’s claim on waste management and pose a challenge in securing the minimum ‘three-star’ ranking as door-to-door collection was not yet a reality in all the 100 wards.