In 2012, for the first time in its history, India saw nationwide public protests from the northernmost Jammu and Kashmir to the southernmost Tamil Nadu against improper waste management. A fight for the right to a clean environment and for environmental justice led people to demonstrate on a large scale, which resulted in remedial responses by government authorities. However, the waste management problems remain unsolved and might lead to a crisis if the status quo persists without long-term planning and policy reforms.
Hunger Strike
Since Thiruvananthapuram in southern India started transporting its waste to the Vilappilsala village in July 2000, respiratory illnesses in the village increased tenfold, from an average of 450 cases a month to 5,000. People who regularly swim in the village's aquifer have begun contracting infections while swarms of flies have become pervasive. Currently, there is not a single household that has not suffered respiratory illnesses because of the waste processing plant and the adjoining dump site.
In August 2012, about 500 police personnel had to accompany trucks to the waste facilities against which the president of the village went on a hunger strike and the villagers blocked the vehicles by lying on the road. As the facilities could not be forced open, following Vilappilsala protests, Thiruvananthapuram's residents had to sneak out at night with plastic bags full of trash to dispose them behind bushes, on streets and in water bodies. For months, they had to burn heaps of trash every morning.
In response to a similar situation in Bangalore, piles of garbage were rotting in the streets for months and against the will of local residents a landfill had to be reopened soon after its closure because the city could not find a new landfill site.
Public Health
Improper waste management causes public health and environmental hazards including air pollution, water pollution, and soil contamination, and contributes to climate change. Other hazards include the spread of odors, disease and the creation of breeding sites for vermin including flies, mosquitoes, rats, dogs and monkeys.
Open burning of waste is one of the largest sources of air pollution in Indian cities. In Mumbai, it is the cause of about 20% of air pollution. Trash fires also emit 10,000 grams toxin equivalents of carcinogenic dioxins/furans every year in Mumbai alone. In comparison, France's 127 waste-to-energy facilities together emit only 4 grams toxin equivalents of dioxins from the combustion of 16m tonnes a year.
More than thirteen years since the Municipal Solid Waste (Management & Handling) Rules 2000 were issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, no city in India is in compliance with them. Open dumping, open burning, dump-site fires, and open human and animal exposure to waste are common.
Local governments, which are responsible for waste management, will not be able to provide immediate solutions. Finding new landfill sites around cities is nearly impossible because of the lack of space due to population density and the scale of India's increasing urban sprawl. This is also due to the track record of municipal waste facilities' operation and maintenance in India coupled with the "not in my back yard" phenomenon.
There are 71 cities that generate more waste than Thiruvananthapuram. As these cities grapple with increasing quantities of waste with limited infrastructure, the public health of Indians will continue to be jeopardized, quality of life will continue to degrade, and environmental resources will continue to be polluted. This will lead to a waste management crises if government authorities fail to leverage the current public awareness to bring about long-term reforms.
What's next?
In order to provide immediate and much-needed relief to communities impacted by improper waste management and to buy themselves some time to plan better, corporations can and should take measures to reduce open burning and landfill fires, cut pollution due to leachates, reduce odors, and divert waste from dump sites by increasing the role of the informal recycling sector.
In addition to discussing what should be done and the ideal state of waste management for India, one should examine achievable goals, and the incremental steps that can be taken to achieve those goals. We should not let the perfect be the enemy of good. National and local governments should work with their partners to achieve inclusive waste management systems, promote source separation, increase recycling rates and produce high-quality compost from organic waste. While this is being achieved, provisions should be made to handle the non-recyclable wastes that are being generated and will continue to be generated in the future. We should not be lost in ideological debates while the health, quality of life and the environment of fellow Indians are at stake.
As I mentioned on the Connect4Climate Climate Change Hub's live Q&A on the Guardian, the impending waste management crisis should be approached holistically. While formulating integrated solutions, it is important we consider the time period associated with various technologies and methods, and their applicability. Planning at the national and local level to deliver long-term solutions should maintain focus on addressing the immediate problems.
Ranjith Annepu is the co-founder of be Waste Wise.
This article is an abridged version of Observations from India's Waste Crisis.
This content is produced and controlled by Connect4Climate
