Stench in my backyard

Vilappil, a small village located 14 kilometres from the heart of Kerala’s capital city, Thiruvananthapuram, comprises mostly marginal farmers and wage labourers. On August 3, defying prohibitory orders issued by the police against public gathering of 5,000-odd people, including schoolchildren and women with babies, gathered near a temple. They formed a human wall across a two-kilometre stretch of road that leads to Thiruvananthapuram’s lone solid waste treatment plant located in their village. Women and children stood in the front. They wanted to stop trucks carrying machinery to a leachate treatment facility under construction on the plant premises. Leachate is the liquid that oozes out of decaying waste.

At about 7 am, 2,500 armed cops, including 500 women constables, reached Vilappil and took positions. “Our children will welcome the police with flowers,” a public address system announced. The police were there to provide protection to Thiruvananthapuram municipal corporation trucks, under directions of the Kerala High Court passed on July 26. To make passage for the trucks, the cops began arresting and removing the protesters. People lit bonfires to stop the cops and trucks, and police responded by using water cannons. Protesters threw whatever they could lay their hands on to keep the bonfires burning.

In the melee, many, including two women constables, sustained injuries. Police vehicles were also attacked by masked youth, who, the protesters allege, were the corporation’s goons. Finally, the police were withdrawn. “We did our best to implement the court order,” said additional district magistrate P K Girija, who had accompanied the police force to the site. “People’s resistance was strong. We did not want to wage a war with them.”

Earlier, on February 13, police had beaten up people when they blocked a garbage truck escorted by 500 armed constables. Women had tied ends of their sarees and laid themselves down on the road to form a human chain. They were hit with batons. Even children were not spared. That day, too, the police could not make any headway. “This is a freedom struggle for us, a life-and-death battle that we cannot afford to lose,” says L Beneckson, secretary of Janakeeya Samara Samithy, people’s committee spearheading the agitation. “We have been suffering for 12 years because of severe air and water pollution caused by the plant. We want freedom from diseases and miseries,” adds S Burhanudeen, president of the committee.

Why plant at Vilappil failed   In 1993, Thiruvananthapuram municipal corporation entered into an agreement with Poabs Group, a plantation and granite quarrying company, to construct a waste treatment plant at Vilappil village. The corporation gave the land and Poabs built the plant. It was agreed that the corporation would give at least 300 tonnes of waste daily to convert organic waste to biofertiliser. Failing this, it would pay penalty of Rs 49,995 per day. But the corporation made the agreement on an incorrect assessment. It was not collecting even 150 tonnes of waste in a day. The design for the plant was lifted from the one at Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh. The fact that climate and nature of waste in the two states are different was not considered. Unlike Andhra Pradesh, Kerala gets five months of continuous rainfall because of which moisture content in the waste is as high as 60 per cent. Poabs did not even construct leachate treatment facility and scientific landfill that requires segregation of biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste. As per the agreement, government-owned Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT) was to buy the biofertiliser. But FACT was not ready to buy manure at the price quoted by Poabs. To cut cost, Poabs began to treat waste only as per FACT’s demand and left the rest to rot. When people protested, the corporation asked Poabs to build a landfill and a leachate treatment plant. But the firm refused, claiming it was running in losses. When it was found that the firm could treat only 90 tonnes of waste and could not be running in losses, both the partners reached a compromise. The corporation bought the plant and promised the firm that no legal action would be initiated against it for polluting air and water resources, and causing serious environmental, social and health problems to people.

In 1993, the municipal corporation bought 18.6 hectares in the village. “The authorities led us into believing that the land was for a herbal garden,” says C Yesudas who lives close to the plant. In 2000, people began protesting after they saw a compost plant being set up. The corporation assured them that the plant would function under the supervision of scientists who would ensure zero stench and pollution. But the site became an open dump. When people protested, criminal cases were filed against 24 of them.

The plant that was projected as the future model for the state could process only small quantities of biodegradable waste because the waste was not segregated (see ‘Why Vilappil plant failed’ on p28). Heaps of unsegregated waste accumulated in the open and started to rot.

People complained of the stench even from a distance of three kilometres. Leachate flowed into nearby streams that join the Meenapalli Thodu, a tributary of the Karamana river. There are six drinking water pumping stations on this river, two of which provide water to the city, and the rest to the surrounding villages.

Chemical analysis by Centre For Earth Sciences Studies (CESS) at Thiruvananthapuram shows city waste contains heavy metals like lead, cadmium and arsenic that can cause cancer, kidney failure and nervous and genetic disorders.

People say the dump began to affect their daily lives. “Matters deteriorated so much that getting suitable marriage alliance became difficult,” says Kumari Latha, a resident. Many sold their land and left Vilappil.

Incidence of respiratory and skin diseases, blurring of vision and swollen limbs is high among those who live close to the plant, says S Shobhana Kumari, Vilappil panchayat president. Medical records substantiate her allegation. The number of respiratory cases reported in Vilappil’s public health centre has increased from 341 in August 1999 to 5,895 in November 2001.

When compared with the community health centre at neighbouring Vellanad, the number of respiratory cases in Vilappil is very high for the same period. But the corporation counters this by saying the plant’s 30-odd employees do not have health problems.

The central government’s Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000 prohibit open dumping of unsegregated municipal waste, especially in residential areas.

The dumping also violates Environment Protection Act, Kerala Paddy Land and Wetland Conservation Act, Kerala Ground Water Act and Coastal Zone Regulation Act. Thiruvananthapuram municipal corporation, with 0.95 million people, generates 203 tonnes of waste a day.

	It is the gram panchayat’s prerogative to address the village’s health and sanitation problems
	S SHOBHANA KUMARI VILAPPIL PANCHAYAT PRESIDENT

On December 21, 2011, Vilappil refused to take this garbage. Waste collection in the city also stopped. Garbage started to pile on roadsides and clogged drains. Unexpected cyclonic rains worsened the situation. Cases of dengue fever, chikungunya and rat fever were reported. The municipal corporation sought the high court’s intervention, which ordered in favour of the civic body. “But we are unable to implement the court order because of panchayat’s high-handedness,” says K Chandrika, mayor of the municipal corporation.

Displeased with the high court order, the gram panchayat approached the Supreme Court. On March 19, the apex court gave an interim order allowing the city’s waste to go to Vilappil, but with riders. The corporation could take 90 tonnes of waste in a day to the plant only if it had the mandatory licence from the panchayat and a no-objection certificate from the Kerala State Pollution Control Board. The plant has neither. With the lone plant inaccessible, the corporation buried 30,000 tonnes of waste at various places in the city. It has “donated” 1,000 tonnes of waste to the Indian Railways for constructing platforms at Murikkumpuzha and Kochuveli railway stations in the district, says D Sreekumar, health officer of the municipal corporation who is in charge of waste management.

	Vilappil panchayat does not allow us to implement the Kerala High Court orders. The plant should be opened else there will be health problems in the city
	K CHANDRIKA, THIRUVANANTHAPURAM CITY MAYOR

The corporation is trying to popularise home composting (see ‘Two-pot composting’) and has offered one per cent concession in property tax for households that install these units. This was announced this year during the corporation’s budget presentation.

Now, 12 years after the plant at Vilappil started functioning, the municipal corporation is on the verge of losing it and wants to make amends. It has capped waste mountains with plastic sheets. A facility that can treat 0.6 million litres of leachate in a day is almost complete. But residents are not willing to allow even clay to be taken to the site to develop a scientific landfill. They want complete closure of the plant.

At an all-party meet attended by representatives of the corporation, gram panchayat and protesters, chief minister Oommen Chandy had assured the plant would be closed forever, says Beneckson. The state government sought six months to find an alternative, but people gave it just three months. When the deadline ended, the gram panchayat passed a resolution to ban the entry of city waste and locked the plant’s gate. Under the Kerala Panchayati Raj Act and the Kerala Municipality Act of 1994, it is the panchayat’s prerogative, says Kumari, to address the village’s health and sanitation problems.

The state government is in a fix. “If we don’t carry out the court order, it would amount to contempt of court,” says the chief minister. “At the same time, we cannot ignore people’s struggle.” In the court, the corporation accused his government of sympathising with the gram panchayat. Congress-led United Democratic Front is in power both at the state and the panchayat. The corporation is administered by CPI (M)-led Left Democratic Front.

Efforts to address Kerala’s situation have proved futile so far

Vilappil is not alone. There is a civil war-like situation in eight of 14 districts—Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kottayam, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Kannur (see ‘Troubled land and its daily waste’). Each district has similar stories. Urban local bodies buy land within or close to gram panchayats and set up waste treatment plants without the mandatory facilities or leave it as open dumps. This contaminates water sources, causes environmental pollution, health hazards and loss of livelihood.

The impasse has turned panchayats against municipalities and corporations on the one hand and the civic bodies against the state government on the other. In some cases, there is distrust among communities against their own local bodies. In Punnol Pettippalam, for instance, New Mahi panchayat asked the Thalassery municipality not to dump waste in its backyard. But the panchayat took no action when the municipality continued the dumping. Both are ruled by the Left Democratic Front (LDF). People allege that a strong lobby of rich and influential contractors thwart any attempt to set up waste treatment facilities. These contractors entered the state’s waste disposal system when local bodies decided to source it out. People allege these contractors simply dump the waste into landfills and pocket the amount they get from local bodies.

To avert pollution, waste must be disposed of scientifically—in between layers of high density polyethylene sheets, red soil, gravel and clay, which is then compacted by machines.

Changing nature of garbage

Kerala’s situation is also made difficult by its population—3.33 million people live in 33,886 sq km. On an average, 859 people live every square kilometre. The climatic peculiarity of receiving 3,000 mm average rainfall 150 days in a year compounds the state’s waste management problem.

Like most states in the country, Kerala, too, has witnessed fast-paced urbanisation. Supermarkets have mushroomed, bringing in the plastic bag culture. It has replaced the traditional newspaper bag industry. People adopted the habit of packing waste in plastic bags before disposing it. Kerala’s daily solid waste generation has increased from 7,441 tonnes in 2001 to 8,338 tonnes in 2006, states a World Bank-aided study on Kerala’s waste management (see ‘What Kerala produces’).

Tackling waste

In October 2006, the LDF government led by V S Achuthanandan took a significant policy decision which deviated from centralised waste management. While implementing the 11th Five Year Plan, it formulated a comprehensive action plan in November 2007 that involved all state local bodies. “The focus of the plan was to reduce, reuse, recycle and recover waste, finally achieving zero waste,” says R Ajayakumar Varma, the then executive director of Suchitwa Mission, formed by merging Kerala Total Sanitation and Health Mission, and Clean Kerala Mission. The government also launched Malinyamuktha Keralam, the total sanitation mission.

With financial, institutional and technical support from the state government, an elaborate capacity building process began. All the panchayats carried out extensive surveys on waste they generated and formulated plans for waste management. Health promotion teams were set up in all the gram panchayats. All projects under Total Sanitation Campaign were restructured to include a waste management component. “But the programme did not go beyond that,” says M Abbas, the then resource person in Ernakulam. Local bodies did not implement them, perhaps because of the changing nature of waste, or because of their political leanings. “Had it started, it would have been a breakthrough in waste management,” says Abbas.

To tackle growing waste, in 2000, the state government integrated the self-help group of Kudumbasree into the waste management system. Kudumbasree is Kerala’s poverty eradication project for women living below poverty line. But a committee, chaired by Varma, found that these women work under dismal conditions. Their wage is fixed at one rupee per house per day and they have to pay for everything waste collection requires, including small autorickshaws for carrying waste. The women buy these vehicles on loan. Fuel expenses and repayment of loans leaves them with no money, not even for gloves and masks. Many suffer from skin and respiratory diseases, states the committee’s report.

Overflowing funds

There is no dearth of funds to implement effective sanitation programmes. All the five city corporations have implemented the Kerala Sustainable Urban Development Project, which is aided by Asian Development Bank. Funds allotted under this programme for solid waste management, sewage and drainage is Rs 596.9 crore. Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi corporations also get funds from Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. Thiruvananthapuram gets Rs 215 crore for sewage maintenance, while Kochi gets about Rs 100 crore for solid waste management and drainage. Forty-nine municipalities get Rs 242.9 crore under Urban Infrastructure Development Scheme for Small and Medium Towns. Gram panchayats, too, get more than enough funds under Total Sanitation Campaign, a part of Centre’s rural development project. “But most of it is unspent because local bodies do not have technical hands to plan and implement scientific solid and sewage waste management,” says N Ramakanthan, former director of Kerala Institute for Local Administration, a government body. No local body in the state has an environmental engineer. Even in corporations, the officer in charge of health monitors waste management.

Kerala’s biggest city dumps its sewage into waterbodies

Kochi, the biggest city in Kerala, faces a unique problem. Despite hosting over three million people, it does not have a sewerage system.

If figures of Kochi municipal corporation are to be believed, about 95 per cent of the city relies on septic tanks. In the 1970s, the Kerala Water Authority envisaged a scheme to build a sewer network, covering 94.88 sq km. It divided the city into four zones. But the scheme never saw the light of the day. Currently, about 2.5 sq km of the city—general hospital area and Gandhi Nagar at the heart of the city—is connected to a sewer, which caters to a population of only 20,000, says the city development plan of 2010.

Lack of a modern sewerage system has introduced a new set of problems. Septic tanks get flooded more often in Kochi than in any other place in the state because the city is located below the sea level. “Untreated sewage has contaminated rivers, streams, lakes and groundwater— the primary source of drinking water,” says P S Harikumar, head of the water quality division of Centre For Water Resources Development and Management in Kozhikode. In fact, 70 per cent of the open wells in the state have faecal contamination, states a study conducted by the Centre, Indian Institute of Technology and Unicef. “This is dangerous considering more than 70 per cent of the people in Kerala depend on wells for drinking water,” the study states.

“Laying pipelines for carrying septage is possible,” says C M Dinesh Mani, former city mayor. “It only needs prioritisation and administrative acumen. One can fix the problem of frequent flooding of septic tanks by removing the sludge more frequently.”

The city depends on in-situ disposal of toilet waste and sullage and open drain. Overflow of effluents into drains is common, says the draft Development Plan for Kochi City Region, 2031. The city has a high water table, which combined with low permeability of soil and high density of population creates sanitation problems.

The situation has worked to the advantage of illegal septic tank cleaners. Residents have learnt not to panic when septic tanks overflow. Newspapers carry advertisements of cleaners by the dozens. They quote around Rs 3,000 and come close to midnight along with tankers, suction pumps and hoses. A small opening made close to the septic tank facilitates the sludge to be sucked out. It’s a neat 30-minute operation. Nobody, not even the neighbours, get to know of it. Residents are cautious not to ask the cleaners where the sludge goes. For it is sure to fetch a hostile reply. The persistent resident can find the answer by following the fly-by-night operator in the dark as it departs. The tanker roams around the city for a while. When the streets are clear of cops, it moves to the city’s periphery and slyly dumps the waste at any convenient place—an open field or one of the numerous streams, canals and rivulets the city boasts of. It is none of the operator’s concern that the waterbodies merge with the Vembanad Kayal, an internationally important Ramsar site that needs to be conserved. “I once saw a tanker dumping toilet sludge into the Periyar,” says Purushan Eloor of Periyar Malineekarana Virudha Samithy, a people’s forum that works to protect rivers. The city drinks water pumped out of this river. There have been instances when tankers with “drinking water” written on them were found carrying septic tank sludge, he adds.

One tanker can carry between 6,000 to 12,000 litres of sludge. This means sludge of about three septic tanks can be taken care of in one trip. With little investment, one trip fetches the operator about Rs 9,000. “The cleaners are merely employees. They have the support of a strong mafia which runs the agencies,” says Eloor.

It’s not that the administration is oblivious to this. “There are hundreds such agencies operating,” admits V S Mythili, chief environmental engineer with the Ernakulam district pollution control board. But the administration is clueless about how the several brimming septic tanks in the city can be cleared at regular intervals. The city has one sewage treatment plant that can treat 4.45 million litres of sewage a day. This means it can cater to only five per cent of the city’s population.

“Stringent action must be taken against agencies that operate without licence,” says Ajit Patil, secretary of Kochi municipal corporation. “But we cannot do that without a workable alternative?” The corporation has recently reached an understanding with the Cochin Port Trust and treats a part of the city’s toilet waste in the trust’s plant. The corporation has decided to build its own plant in west Kochi, says Patil. But its commissioning is likely to be a long-drawn affair. Till now, only 1.62 hectare has been identified. “With this, half of the city’s septage problem will be solved,” he claims. What about the other half? “It will be solved in due course,” is the only answer the municipal corporation has for now.

With inputs from P N Venugopal

Five waste-to-energy plants on the anvil

At its wit’s end on how to tackle the impasse over waste disposal, Oommen Chandy’s United Democratic Front government is now focusing on modern technologies. “Drastic and immediate solution is required. Policies can wait,” says Manjalamkuzhi Ali, the state urban development minister.

The state government will pursue a three-pronged action plan—treat municipal solid waste at source, modernise and upgrade the existing waste treatment plants, and adopt modern technologies, says George Chackacherry, executive director of Suchitwa Mission. The government has opted for gasification technology to produce energy from waste through public-private partnership. Gasification technology requires waste to be burnt at high temperature in a low-oxygen chamber.

Waste-to-energy plants will be set up in all the five civic corporations and Kottayam and Kannur municipalities, where protests are raging. Suchitwa Mission has already called tenders. As a pilot project, a 35 tonne capacity plant will be set up in Thiruvananthapuram at Chala, a busy market area. The state government will give 0.8 hectare to Loro Green Energy, a consortium that has won the bid. The plant’s capacity will be upgraded to 100 tonnes later.

“We envisage this project as an island of salvation,” says Chackacherry. “The technology has not been used anywhere in the country, so we have to convince people and the media that such plants can work,” he adds.

The state government also plans to buy a mobile incinerator at the cost of Rs 5 crore. This will burn one tonne of waste in an hour. “More the investment on waste management, better will be the benefits,” says Chackacherry. “The previous government spent only Rs 4 crore. We spent more than Rs 50 crore last year (2011-12). This year, we will spend about Rs 200 crore,” he adds.

Two-pot composting   Thiruvananthapuram-based non-profit Thanal has developed a two-pot composting method for households. It requires nothing more than two earthen pots with lids. For a small family, two 20-litre pots are enough. Make a small hole at the bottom of each pot and several small holes on the lids. The pots should be kept slightly elevated to allow aeration. Place a container under the pots to collect leachate. Feed the pots daily with kitchen waste, including egg shells and bones. A family that generates one kilogramme of waste in a day will be able to fill the pot within two months. Now, stir the waste in the pot with a stick and leave it to sleep, while filling up the second pot. The compost is ready after another two months. Black Soldier Fly, a big fly that does not carry germs, breeds in this waste and keeps other flies away. It also does not give out a foul smell. The process can be made more efficient by adding a few days’ old sour buttermilk, curd or curry. The pots can be kept anywhere in the house protected from rainwater. In Thiruvananthapuram, at least a hundred families have started experimenting with this method.

Waste-to-energy not viable

However, making energy from waste is not viable in Kerala because of its high moisture content, low calorific value, high biodegradable fraction, high ambient temperature and humidity, says R Ajayakumar Varma, scientist at the Centre for Earth Sciences Studies in Thiruvananthapuram.

“The best method is to convert it to biofertiliser through composting,” he says. He has analysed technical options for waste management in the state. His study shows that waste in Kerala has substantially high levels of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. “Composting has a very clear edge over processes like incineration, pyrolysis and gasification,” he says. Gasification requires that moisture content of waste should be well under 20 per cent. Besides, waste has to be converted to pellets before feeding it to the plant. This needs high energy and capital input.

The technology violates Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000 which do not allow waste to be burnt without segregation.

Gasification has been slammed even by a state government expert committee that was set up to shortlist companies for the bidding process. The committee, headed by R V G Menon, a rural technology expert, suggests using a mix of technologies. For biodegradable waste, the committee recommends biological treatment that involves biogas production or aerobic composting.

For non-biodegradable waste, it recommends incineration, gasification and pyrolysis.

But the state government is not ready to consider clean waste management options. “Composting requires land and can be done only where quantity of waste is less,” says Chackacherry. Gasification does not require landfill, so there will be no leachate or stench and people will have no problem, he claims.

As per the public-private partnership terms, local bodies will have to provide the private party enough waste. Failing this, local bodies will have to pay compensation. Chackacherry makes it clear that the government will ignore any opposition to these projects. It is convinced that people will benefit from them. Waste management issue will be tackled within one-and-a half years, he says confidently.

The way out

The present state-wide impasse is because waste has not been perceived correctly, say waste management experts. They are highly critical of the state government going for untested, high cost, high energy consuming technologies. Especially when there is no successful model in the country making energy from waste through burning.

“Why are the state government and local bodies taxing their brains over biodegradable part of the waste which comprises more than 70 per cent of the waste?” asks Shibu K Nair of Thanal, a non-profit in Thiruvananthapuram that works on waste management.

To start with, collection of biodegradable waste from households, slaughterhouses, hotels and markets must stop, says Shibu. Waste from these places can be treated by using simple composting methods. Thanal has developed a two-pot composting method for households (see box).

Shibu also suggests biogas plants for hotels, markets and slaughterhouses. Segregated biodegradable waste can also be sold to farmers. With such simple practices, a good chunk of waste can disappear from public space, he says. The authorities can then focus on treating non-biodegradable and slow degradable waste.

Rag-pickers and scrap collectors, who do not find a place in the present waste management system, should be brought back to tackle paper and plastic waste. Pune-based Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakri Panchayat, a cooperative of ragpickers, collects plastic for its recycling units. Paper and plastic waste can be sent to common collection centres within a locality, which can hand it over to ragpickers. Each city can prepare a directory of ragpickers and give a copy to resident associations. Thanal is in the process of making one such directory for Thiruvananthapuram, says Shibu.

A lot of responsibility must also be taken by manufacturers who bring an array of non-degradable products into the market. They should be ready to take back products that cannot be treated, processed or recycled. If manufacturers have a role in waste management, they will be forced to substitute their products with treatable material.

“True, local bodies have shown a lackadaisical approach towards waste management and violated laws. But they cannot be wholly blamed for the worsening situation. The issue involves manufacturers, markets, consumers, lifestyles, cultures and traditions. To solve it, an integrated approach is required,” says C Jayakumar of Thanal.

Wrong questions yield wrong answers. The question, “What to do with waste?” should be replaced with, “Why waste happens?” Its solution will take time to materialise, but is not impossible.

Attingal to Sikkim   At a time when Thiruvananth- apuram is weighed down by the garbage burden, neighbouring Attingal prides itself for winning the state Pollution Control Board’s clean city award the seventh time in a row. Attingal generates about 16 tonnes of solid waste in a day, of which 60 per cent is biodegradable. Three units of Kudumbasree, a women’s self-help group, collect waste from community bins and households, segregate it and take it to the 1.6 hectare municipality plant. For many decades, the site was a dumpyard. In 2005, the municipal body decided to build a composting plant here. Non-profit Kasaragod Social Service Society designed it. As a first step, the municipality banned plastic below 30 microns. Then it compressed all the accumulated waste and built the plant on it. The 24-staff plant became operational in 2007. For a second round of segregation, a vermicomposting plant was set up at the same site. It is run by Kudumbasree women and treats a portion of biodegradable waste. Along with the composting plant, a biogas production unit treats waste from the markets. The area also has a 0.6 hectare scientific landfill and a plastic shredding machine. In its second phase of construction, the municipality has built a second shed at the site. What is the secret behind the success of the plant at Attingal? “Nothing more than proper monitoring,” says K Mohankumar of Kasaragod Social Service Society. “We never keep waste for the next day.” However, it is essential that specifications are adhered to while building the plant. To compost one tonne of waste, at least 80 square metre land is required, he says. Leachate from the plant is collected through underground pipes in a closed tank, which is connected to the biogas plant. The slurry from the plant is used in the composting process. For every kilogramme of compost, the municipality gives 20 paise to the service provider. The rate fixed by the state government is very low, says Mohankumar. The non-profit takes the fertiliser and sells it in the market. Earlier, the charge was Rs 1.40 without the fertiliser. How does the non-profit gain? “There are times when I have to give money from my pocket,” he smiles. But he wants to prove that a composting plant can work. The success at Attingal has intrigued state governments. Sikkim, for instance, has sought Attingal municipality’s help in efficiently composting waste in low temperature.