The latest incident of a major fire breakout at the waste dumping yard of the Kalamassery Municipality in north Kalamassery has once again exposed the gaps in the solid waste management scenario in the civic body.
Despite repeated incidents of serious violations of the norms under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, the authorities and the enforcement agencies have not been able to act tough against violations and find a scientific solution to the vexed issue, according to the timeline of events and official records.
The Kerala State Pollution Control Board had slapped a penalty of ₹2.47 crore as environment compensation on the municipality for its failure to comply with the provisions of Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 in 2019. The fine was imposed as per an order issued by the National Green Tribunal. The study by the board had found that only one-fifth of the waste generated was disposed of as per rules.
The municipality authorities received a stay from the Kerala High Court against the payment of penalty. Even though the authorities and officials of the civic body had made tall claims, no concrete steps were taken to remove the heaps of legacy (old) waste, mainly plastic, lying at the yard for long. As per the norms, the civic body should have ensured bioremediation or capping of old and abandoned dump sites. They should have identified suitable sites for setting up solid waste processing facilities, besides procuring sanitary landfill facilities.
The continuing lethargy on the part of the municipality had forced the State Level Monitoring Committee on Solid Waste Management appointed by the tribunal to recommend stringent measures against those responsible for non-compliance of rules. However, there was no major improvement and it was only in December that the civic body decided to entrust the government’s Clean Kerala Company with the task of removing the legacy waste. The agency had clarified that it had not yet received a reply from the civic body authorities on the exact quantity of legacy waste lying at the site despite removing about 400 to 500 tonnes since December, 2021.
