North Chennai Residents and Civil Society Demand Scrapping of Proposed Kodungaiyur Incinerator over Health Hazard Concerns

PRESS RELEASE

05.11.2024

Residents of North Chennai, communities, and civil society organizations have filed complaints with the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) demanding the scrapping of the proposed incinerator plant in Kodungaiyur due to increased health hazards.

Greater Chennai Corporation plans to add a heavily polluting red category waste-to-energy (WTE) incinerator plant in Kodungaiyur, which is a highly polluted area. Burning 2,100 tons of mixed garbage in the WTE incinerators in Kodungaiyur area/North Chennai area, which already has about 36 large red-category thermal, petrochemical and other factories, and the city’s largest garbage dump will be against the principles of environmental justice. It will also lead to irreversible health, environmental, social, climate, and livelihood impacts on the local communities and the people of Chennai.

Highlighting that WTE incinerators in Delhi have led to a slew of health problems including, unusually high incidences of cancer, asthma and breathing difficulties etc among people living in that area, which is also confirmed by several studies in various countries, the communities living near the proposed plant and several Civil Society Organisations have given a complaint letter to the TNPCB. Also, experiences from the WTE incinerators in Delhi have shown that children living near WTE incinerators were likely to have lower lung function and lowered IQs from breathing toxic particles and pregnant women were advised not to live in the area as it could affect the growing fetus.

The most scientific and sustainable approach for environmentally sound management of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) involves “at source segregation of wastes” followed by decentralized waste processing. The CSIR-NEERI report notes that, “Promoting WTE incineration plants for mixed waste (mass burning), defeats the purpose of waste segregation, which is mandatory, as per the prevailing SWM Rules, 2016. The mass burning of MSW also·defeats the opportunity of Circular Economy for the waste sector.” Once operational, the WTE incinerator will generate CO2 emissions equivalent to the emissions from 8.92 lakh passenger cars every day. This will negatively impact Chennai’s overall climate and air quality index. Also, the proposed WTE incinerator will produce one of the costliest forms of electricity in the country with a capital expenditure of about 33 crore/MW and power production at about 7 rupees per unit.

The complaints filed against the proposed WTE incinerator calls for the following-

Scrapping of the WTE incineration projects in the Kodungaiyur area because of the health, environmental, livelihood and climate impacts.
Focussing on systemic transformations in the waste management sector including effective implementation of the local byelaws on solid waste management with a focus on waste minimisation, source segregation, decentralised processing, penalties for non-compliance and restricting the production/manufacturing/usage of all SUPs in the local body jurisdiction.

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