An inconvenient truth in Chennai

For as long as she can remember, little Kannagi has been living among the mountainous heaps of garbage in the Perungudi garbage dump.

Kannagi, who looks seven or eight, cannot count but she knows that the more metal pieces and plastic containers she collects, the more pleased her mother will be. Every day she trudges on hills of garbage, sifting through the waste for material that can be resold.

About 1,500 tonnes of the 3,500 tonnes of garbage generated by Chennai ends up in the Perungudi dump every day. The rest goes to the Kodungaiyur dump yard in north Chennai.

Two weeks ago, the Madras High Court directed the Chennai Corporation to float tenders for an integrated waste management facility in Perungudi. The court also said that all encroachments on the Pallikaranai marsh should be removed.

Even with an integrated waste management facility, life is not likely to change much for children like Kannagi who work as rag-pickers in the dump. At least 30 children can be found among the garbage everyday as they salvage materials for resale.

Most of the children have never been inside a school. The only school bags that they have held are the broken ones they pick up from the trash. A day's labor fetches each of the little rag-pickers Rs. 10-Rs. 20.

The price they pay is much more. Guna, a teenager working in the dump, has a persistent cough due to the exposure to fumes from burning garbage. Another boy has a wound on his leg that has not healed because he has to wade through waste. Used bandages, syringes and old batteries dot the waste heaps.

While children should not be allowed to work, adult rag pickers can be provided with support, says G. Dattatri, a former urban planner with the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority. At present, rag-pickers play an informal but significant role in waste management. The Corporation can protect the health of adults by providing masks and gloves, he said.

The city is eight years behind in complying with the Municipal Solid Waste Rules of 2000, which stipulate segregation and processing of waste. Garbage dumping in the Perungudi - Pallikaranai marshland has also harmed the ecology of the wetland and burning of wastes has polluted the air.

Exnora Founder M.B. Nirmal called for decentralized solutions to manage waste. "Rather than end-of-the-pipe solutions, source segregation of garbage must be encouraged to reduce the load on the garbage dumps," he said.

Corporation officials said the source segregation concept has been introduced in 10 of the 155 wards in the city. The drive would be extended in phases to the rest of the city in two years.