City Report and Action Plan of Chennai

Mr. V. R. Gurumurthy
Executive Engineer and Superintending Engineer (i/e),
Solid Waste Management,
Corporation of Chennai,
India

CONTENTS

1. City Report

1.1. Administration and Environmental Protection

The Department of Solid Waste Management of the Municipal Corporation of Chennai is responsible only for the Solid Waste Management in the city. Urban development and urban planning are carried out by a separate body called the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority. They are responsible for overall city planning with inter-departmental co-ordination. They are also responsible for regulating the growth of buildings, industries, trade and commercial activities and creating a master plan for constructing and maintaining infrastructures as well as strengthening the existing infrastructure. Environmental protection is looked after by a state body called the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. They are responsible for the enforcement of the Environment (Protection) Act, Air (Prevention of Pollution) Act, the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act and all the rules, notifications and stipulations made or issued under the above legislations. Their main role is to regulate and monitor the functioning of all the trade, industrial and commercial activity, which would produce any hazardous material to the environment. Water Supply and Drainage arrangement for Sewage is carried out by another separate city body called The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board. They are responsible for the supply of drinking water through and the collection, conveyance, treatment and disposal of sewage through the sewerage system.

Latest land fill site

1.2. Current Status and Challenges of Environmental Administration

The major components that would pollute the environment at present include solid wastes; storm waters that bring sewage into the streets under heavy rains; vehicle emissions and noise. The solid waste processing facility is yet to emerge. There is no processing facility running in the entire country operating to its full capacity. There is a lack of common technologies or common plant design free from patent's rights. Plants have to be set up only on risk and with utmost care at all stages. The existing landfills are crude open dumps. Now only controlled dumping of waste is as follows: disposing the waste in layers and covering them with available construction and demolition waste materials. The landfills are in existence for more than two decades. They were originally located away from habitation clusters, but they have all become surrounded by housing plots and massive colonization. The people surrounding the landfill now protest the existence of the landfill stating that it is a source of health hazard to them. It is difficult to find new land fill sites even as much as 50 kilometres from the city. Those require more vehicles for transportation, more drivers, more fuel which greatly increases the haulage-cost.

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2. Action Plan

2.1. Problems

The major problem on which this action plan is focused is the management of hazardous wastes. This is a problem that concerns the entire city of 4.3 million people. The new waste management facility will require work on at least two levels. First, the city will have to gain better control of small industry wastes. Second, the new system will require some separation of wastes at the household level. Thus the action plan will require two different but interrelated activities.

2.2. Constraints

The major constraint at this time is a jurisdictional one. Hazardous wastes are under the control of the State government's Pollution Control Board. That Board will have to undertake a survey of the city's industries to identify hazardous wastes and develop a control system for those wastes. This will require a proposal to the State Chief Minister, through the Chief Secretary, who will then direct the Pollution Control Board to take the necessary action.

For the separation of wastes at the household level, the City Corporation has appropriate authority and responsibility. This is the responsibility of the Zonal Officers who control activities at the city wards. The Zonal Officers are under the control of the Joint Commissioners for Health, Education, and Revenue and Finance. A proposal for organizing household waste separation will be given to the City Commissioner. The plan will involve some reorganization of household collection. Presently household wastes are separated into two categories: combustible and non-combustible. The new system will require a four part separation: combustible, compostable, recyclable and inert.

2.3. Action Plan

1. Develop a written proposal for a State managed industrial survey. Write a proposal for the State Pollution Control Board to survey all industries in the city. The proposal will be reviewed by the City Commissioner. The survey will test industrial wastes to determine levels of hazard and will propose appropriate controls. The proposal can be written within one month for transmission to the State Chief Secretary.
2. State survey of Chennai industries. The State's Pollution Control Board will carry out a survey of the city's industries and draft a plan for appropriate control. This will be done within about six months.
3. Write a proposal to the City Commissioner for Household Waste Management. A proposal with specific steps to be carried out will be written for the City Commissioner. The proposal will be reviewed by the Chief Engineer, who has responsibility for the Solid Waste Management Department. A decision on the plan will be made by the Commissioner. This will take about 2 weeks.
4. Design receptacles to be distributed to households. This can be done within six months
5. Education for new waste management. Ward level programs will be developed to instruct people at the ward level on how the new separation program will work. This will be organized for the second half of 2007 to be ready for the opening of the new plants at the end of 2007.
6. Distribution of new receptacles to households. This will be done at the end of 2007, just before the new plants become operative.
7. School education program. A program for instruction in the schools will be developed to introduce the new waste management system to the school children. Meet with education Deputy Commissioner to plan a school curriculum on the new waste management program.
8. Design the new special curriculum. It is assumed that the Deputy Commissioner on Education will develop a special curriculum for the schools concerning the waste management program. That will probably be done in the second half of 2006.
9. Education program in schools. New special curriculum to be launched in the schools in the first half of 2007.
10. The new system is planned to be operative by the beginning of 2008.
11. Monitoring the new system. Solid Waste Management Department officers will work with Zonal and Ward managers to examine waste separation at the ward level. This will be done throughout the first year of the new system's operation, all of 2008.
12. Maintaining the system. The Solid Waste Management Department will design the procedures for maintaining the system and will carry out maintenance and improvements as needed.

2.4. Action Plan by Quarters