Chennai: Already battling oil and gas leaks, reckless industrial pollution caused by petroleum and thermal plats and small units, North Chennai has to now confront a new village on the stage – the incinerator at Kodungaiyur dumpyard.
The 35-lakh population of North Chennai uses much of the 350-acre Kodungaiyur to dump its solid waste. Now, the dumpyard faces a new threat of playing host to the entire city’s 6,100 tonnes of daily waste, including from areas like OMR and ECR.
The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is setting up a waste-to-energy (WTE) plant at Kodungaiyur dumpyard to process 2,100 tonnes of waste daily and generate 21 MW of power. Under a 20-year contract, non-recyclable waste from South Chennai zones too, including Adyar, Perungudi, and Sholinganallur, will be transported to Kodungaiyur in the future, making the area a hot spot for emissions.
Despite generating 3,500 tonnes of biodegradable waste daily, GCC can process just 856 tonnes in its 138 facilities, including bio-CNG, windrow composting, micro-composting, and garden waste centres. Barely 50% of these facilities are operational, leaving 2,200 tonnes of bio-waste unprocessed and ending up in landfills. GCC also segregates just 20% of waste at source.
In contrast, much of South Chennai’s Perungudi dumpyard has been biomined and reclaimed, and an estimated at 1,800–2,000 tonnes of solid waste is set to be redirected to Kodungaiyur daily. Perungudi is a Ramsar site and even an eco-park plan on the reclaimed land has been dropped due to civic resistance.
The incineration plan has triggered anger among North Chennai-based activists and residents. For effective incineration, waste requires a calorific value (heat released by waste during combustion) of 14.4 MJ/kg. Studies by NEERI reveal Chennai’s waste often falls short of this benchmark.
“Chennai’s waste does not have the right calorific value. Wet waste won’t burn entirely like dry waste, leaving ash laden with pollutants, including CO2. Around the 10-tonne Manali incineration plant, ash deposits were found on walls and balconies. During rains, these toxins mix with water bodies,” said health researcher Viswaja Sampath, who has studied North Chennai extensively.
The contract also does not specify presence of carbon capture technology that filters and stores CO2. “The plants usually use only filters and these often get damaged, and are expensive to replace,” said Viswaja.
A 2019 Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group (CAG) study found alarming health issues among residents near Kodungaiyur: 150 reported respiratory problems, 139 had skeletal-muscular issues, 40 had central nervous system ailments, and 35 suffered from eye and skin infections.
About 33% of people surveyed had skeletal muscular damage while 29% had respiratory abnormalities. Another peer-reviewed journal based on studies in Kodungaiyur found 62% having dyspnoea (shortness of breath), and the majority affected were between 21 to 30.
Incineration fears are compounded by experiences from New Delhi, where a WTE plant released arsenic, lead, and cadmium into the air, leading to National Green Tribunal (NGT) penalties upto Rs 25 lakhs. Transporting waste to Kodungaiyur may also worsen traffic and increase vehicular emissions on arterial roads.
The WTE plants also undermine Chennai’s “Zero Waste” goal of 100% segregation, recycling, and reuse, a concept GCC has been promoting for the last decade. “If incineration becomes the norm, we risk receiving waste from peri-urban areas too. Globally, communities around WTE plants suffer,” said Vamsi Shankar Kapilavai, Senior Researcher at CAG. He emphasised reducing CO2 emissions, not adding to them.
“We have no choice but incineration. The city’s population is growing, and there’s no land available to dump such large volumes of waste after Perungudi dumpyard is reclaimed,” said GCC Commissioner J Kumaragurubaran.o
The 35-lakh population of North Chennai uses much of the 350-acre Kodungaiyur to dump its solid waste. Now, the dumpyard faces a new threat of playing host to the entire city’s 6,100 tonnes of daily waste, including from areas like OMR and ECR.
The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is setting up a waste-to-energy (WTE) plant at Kodungaiyur dumpyard to process 2,100 tonnes of waste daily and generate 21 MW of power. Under a 20-year contract, non-recyclable waste from South Chennai zones too, including Adyar, Perungudi, and Sholinganallur, will be transported to Kodungaiyur in the future, making the area a hot spot for emissions.
Despite generating 3,500 tonnes of biodegradable waste daily, GCC can process just 856 tonnes in its 138 facilities, including bio-CNG, windrow composting, micro-composting, and garden waste centres. Barely 50% of these facilities are operational, leaving 2,200 tonnes of bio-waste unprocessed and ending up in landfills. GCC also segregates just 20% of waste at source.
In contrast, much of South Chennai’s Perungudi dumpyard has been biomined and reclaimed, and an estimated at 1,800–2,000 tonnes of solid waste is set to be redirected to Kodungaiyur daily. Perungudi is a Ramsar site and even an eco-park plan on the reclaimed land has been dropped due to civic resistance.
The incineration plan has triggered anger among North Chennai-based activists and residents. For effective incineration, waste requires a calorific value (heat released by waste during combustion) of 14.4 MJ/kg. Studies by NEERI reveal Chennai’s waste often falls short of this benchmark.
“Chennai’s waste does not have the right calorific value. Wet waste won’t burn entirely like dry waste, leaving ash laden with pollutants, including CO2. Around the 10-tonne Manali incineration plant, ash deposits were found on walls and balconies. During rains, these toxins mix with water bodies,” said health researcher Viswaja Sampath, who has studied North Chennai extensively.
The contract also does not specify presence of carbon capture technology that filters and stores CO2. “The plants usually use only filters and these often get damaged, and are expensive to replace,” said Viswaja.
A 2019 Citizen Consumer and Civic Action Group (CAG) study found alarming health issues among residents near Kodungaiyur: 150 reported respiratory problems, 139 had skeletal-muscular issues, 40 had central nervous system ailments, and 35 suffered from eye and skin infections.
About 33% of people surveyed had skeletal muscular damage while 29% had respiratory abnormalities. Another peer-reviewed journal based on studies in Kodungaiyur found 62% having dyspnoea (shortness of breath), and the majority affected were between 21 to 30.
Incineration fears are compounded by experiences from New Delhi, where a WTE plant released arsenic, lead, and cadmium into the air, leading to National Green Tribunal (NGT) penalties upto Rs 25 lakhs. Transporting waste to Kodungaiyur may also worsen traffic and increase vehicular emissions on arterial roads.
The WTE plants also undermine Chennai’s “Zero Waste” goal of 100% segregation, recycling, and reuse, a concept GCC has been promoting for the last decade. “If incineration becomes the norm, we risk receiving waste from peri-urban areas too. Globally, communities around WTE plants suffer,” said Vamsi Shankar Kapilavai, Senior Researcher at CAG. He emphasised reducing CO2 emissions, not adding to them.
“We have no choice but incineration. The city’s population is growing, and there’s no land available to dump such large volumes of waste after Perungudi dumpyard is reclaimed,” said GCC Commissioner J Kumaragurubaran.o
