Mr. Ramu Mahalingam described Chennai’s waste collection and city greening, which will be expanded by his workshop Action Plan to landscape Chennai’s 4-kilometer beach.

1. The City

Chennai (formerly Madras) is India’s fourth largest city. Situated on India’s southeast coast with a long and broad beach, this capital of the state of Tamil Nadu gained special world prominence in 2004 when the Tsunami from the December Indonesian earthquake devastated the city. Established in 1688 by the British East India Company as a trading post, the city has a long a rich history. Since India’s independence, the city’s population has doubled more than twice, growing from just over a million to about five million today. The rapid growth from both natural increase and in-migration has slowed slightly with the success of the state and city’s family planning program, which has brought the total fertility rate to below replacement levels. The rapid growth has, however, brought many of the problems of challenged urban infrastructure that other cities face. The city’s topography also contributes to its problems. Low lying and monsoon dependent, the city faces water shortages in the dry season and flooding when the rains come. 

Chennai has made major progress in managing its annual 3,500 tons of solid waste. Despite its large slum population, about 1.5 out of the total 5 million, the city has organized the provision of garbage collection services to all households. Approximately 95% of the waste is sent to landfills, and the rest is recycled in a program that is now growing rapidly. Roughly 68% of the wastes come from households, 14% is commercial-industrial, 15% from restaurants, markets and schools, and 3% from hospitals and clinics. 

The slums, with narrow lanes, provided a special challenge for waste collection. Until 2003 some 13,000 dustbins were located around the city and through the slums. Households took their wastes to the dustbins for collection, which added to a dirty and littered condition. Now, tricycle bins provide the capacity to collect wastes at the door step. This allows the city to virtually eliminate the dustbins and make the city cleaner and healthier. 

Along with the change to door to door collection, the city has developed a program for the separation of garbage at the household level. Neighborhood groups, schools and NGOs were mobilized with city-wide campaigns to educate people on the advantages of separation. This allows for the production of compost from the wastes, and reduces the waste going to the landfill. The city has also developed a series of public toilets to manage human wastes. Finally, a wide ranging Integrated Waste Processing Strategy is being implemented that will meet many of the challenges the city faces. 

Instructing citizens on waste segregation

Chennai has gained international recognition for its innovative water harvesting program. All buildings must now harvest rainwater. This implies channeling roof run off into special drains that fill the city’s underground aquifer, rather than allowing the heavy rains simply to run off into the rivers and the sea. Streets and other covered land areas are fitted with similar water harvesting drains. The result has been a rise in the city’s water table, and a slowing of the encroachment of sea water. 

Greening is carried out largely through building parks and planting trees along major roadways. Scores of traffic islands and roadside parks promote the greening of the roads. In addition, some 48 parks have been built and 97 more projects are in process. 

A distinctive SWOT (strengths weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis has shown that the city’s strengths lie in its skilled and educated manpower and uninterrupted electricity supply. Threats, on the other hand, derive from automobile congestion and air pollution and from overcrowding of some areas. Past capacities of the city’s leadership and administration to meet challenges provides considerable hope for the future. Chennai is an optimistic city!

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1. The Proposed Action Plan

The Proposed Action Plan Despite the greenery of the central parks, roadside parks, traffic islands and central medians, some places are lacking in greenery. 

One example is the 3km by 800m beach area on the city’s east coast. Several thousand tourists and locals visit the beach each day, and the number is likely to rise, so the environment needs to be both attractive and protected. 

The Action Plan by Mr. Ramu Mahalingam will landscape the beach with greenery, in order to absorb CO² emitted by citizens and tourists. This is also designed to create a scenic urban landscape, provide an accessible natural recreation area, and nurture a home-town oriented outlook. Its natural environment will be nurtured and preserved, inhabited by a wide range of natural life forms, and creating a mild and pleasant urban environment. 

As well as the planting of trees and greenery along the beach, the project will also incorporate the simultaneous development of a water line for landscape watering; artificial waterfalls and fountains; earth-filled landscaped areas; footpaths and railing; improved car parking; a gallery and toilet block; and ornamental lamps.

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Chennai Action Plan Time Frame: June 2008 - January 2010

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