Kochi has been choking on smoke billowing out from the Municipal Solid Waste dumpsite at Brahmapuram located close to two rivers – Kadambrayar and Chitrapuzha – since March 2. While the fire has been brought under control with the Navy and even Air Force rendering a helping hand to the Fire and Rescue workers on the ground, toxic smoke from the smouldering dump has become a huge health hazard for people in Kochi and nearby local bodies.
The expansive 110 acre dump yard, located close to Infopark Kochi, a swanky Information Technology park, also houses a plant that treats refuse from five municipalities (Angamaly, Aluva, Kalamassery, Thrikkakara and Tripunithura), three panchayats (Cheranallur, Vadavucode and Puthencruz) and the Kochi Municipal Corporation, which is responsible for the plant’s upkeep. Every day more than 300 tonnes of waste is said to make its way to the site, which according to an estimate holds over five lakh cubic metres of legacy waste.
The Kochi Corporation began dumping solid waste at Brahmapuram in June 2007. The waste treatment plant sits on land categorised as wetland under the Vadavucode-Puthencruz grama panchayath. This site was called Chellypadam, where paddy used to be cultivated. The land acquisition, which displaced 53 families, was opposed by residents since 2002 but in July 2007 several lorries loaded with garbage rolled into the area and started dumping waste making the residents environmental refugees overnight.
It's been 16 years since the waste dumping began at the site. The plant became operational in 2008 but it took many more years for the Kochi Corporation to implement segregation of waste at source. While many local bodies in the state adopted a decentralised mechanism, Kochi opted for a centralised facility, which has proved to be a failure over the years.This was not the first time that waste at Brahmapuram caught fire and similar incidents were reported in 2020 and 2019. Repeated incidents of fire at Brahmapuram and the inability of the local body to efficiently manage the facility or modernise it has also led to allegations of massive corruption.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) in January 2021 had come down heavily on the state government over the continued ineffective solid waste management at the plant. A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice AK Goel, while hearing a case seeking direction to take effective steps for infrastructure development for collection, storage, segregation and disposal of tonnes of waste, termed legacy waste, that has accumulated over the years in Kochi's Brahmapuram.
M Suchithra, an environmental journalist, told TNM that before the plant became operational (in 2008), the waste in Kochi used to be dumped in an open landfill at Cheranallur. "When dumping here was opposed by residents, another dump site was identified at Willingdon Island in 2006 but the Southern Naval Command objected because an increase in bird activity was a threat to their aircrafts. The dumping of waste on the wayside was common and courts were moved against the Kochi Corporation. The waste in Kochi was even transported to Tamil Nadu through Kambam and Theni and also to Mysore through several districts, says Suchitra.”
A fact-finding committee in 2007 had found that the waste dumping at Brahmapuram is in clear violation of a statutory mandate. "Allowing flow of polluted water into a stream is a prohibited activity under section 24 of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act. Around 33.3 acres of wetland was reclaimed in Brahmapuram in the year 2008, for the waste treatment plant.
“The fact-finding committee warned against the plant in 2007 not only because it was a centralised plant but because of its location too. Vilappilsala, a centralised waste treatment plant in Thiruvananthapuram, had contaminated the rivers in its vicinity, the Karamana river and Chowallur stream. Brahmapuram has two rivers in its vicinity and the objection was also because the plant will contaminate these two rivers,” says Sreedhar Radhakrishnan, an environmentalist. The leachate from the waste dump is a threat to water sources but despite several diktats from the NGT, the site still lacks a proper leachate treatment facility.
The plant was initially contracted out to Andhra Pradesh Technology Development and Promotion Centre (ATPDPC). In 2009, reports of the Brahmapuram waste treatment plant developing cracks came out. An expert committee of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Kozhikode, found all buildings had developed cracks.
A 2017 working paper by Prathibha Ganesan of the Public Policy Research Institute in Thiruvananthapuram, observed that the infrastructural breakdown at Brahmapuram affected the efficiency of mechanised composting, leading to large-scale environmental degradation. The failure of the Kochi Corporation to manage the waste treatment plant, biomine the legacy waste or even ensure segregation of waste at source-level had resulted in interventions by the National Green Tribunal and even the Supreme Court.
Suchitra says the plant has never had success in treating the waste since the stakeholders involved had no clear knowledge about it. It was known that mixed waste could not be treated at such plants. Brahmapuram has a windrow composting facility which can treat organic waste but not mixed waste. “It should also be checked if the waste dumped is proportionate to the capacity of the treatment plant,” says Suchitra. The existing windrow plant is in a dilapidated condition.
According to an estimate, the site had 5.5 lakh cubic metres of legacy waste, which is currently being biomined by a company Zonta Infratech Pvt Ltd, which also bagged the contract for the proposed waste-to-energy plant. The biomining itself is moving at a slow pace and only 20 tonnes of waste has been bailed so far.
In the last week of February, Kochi Corporation received approval to construct a second windrow composting plant as the construction of waste-to-energy plant is facing inordinate delays.
“An agreement for waste treatment with a civic body and a private company, sometimes, will be on the basis of wrong data. In Vilappilsala, the private company with which the corporation entered into a contract, insisted on a clause that there should be 300 tonnes of waste per day, but the waste collected daily was only 150 tonnes,” says Suchitra.
When the Kochi Corporation signed an agreement with GJ Eco Power for setting up a waste-to-energy plant, one of the clauses said the local body was responsible for delivering 300 tonnes of waste. Though it has been estimated that 300 tonnes of waste reaches Brahmapuram daily, the actual quantum of waste that enters the plant and bio manure produced remains unknown.
After the Vilappilsala plant in Thiruvananthapuram was shut due to protest, the city moved to decentralised waste treatment. The districts of Alappuzha and Thrissur also adopted decentralised treatment. Dumpyards at Lalur in Thrissur and Sarvodayapuram in Alappuzha had to be closed because of protest by residents.
Suchitra points out that the Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 stipulate that garbage should be segregated at the source itself, and biodegradable part of it should be treated at the source and converted as compost. “The thrust of Kerala's Solid Waste Management Policy is decentralised treatment of waste. The policy highlights reduction, reuse, recycling and recovery, and phase by phase attaining of a zero waste scenario. Any centralised mode of waste treatment is against this policy,” says Suchitra, who resides at Kakkanad and had to bear the brunt of pollution resulting from Brahmapuram fire outbreak.
Kerala's decentralised waste management policy is in fact revolutionary. That's the only solution considering the high population density, growing garbage, lack of land availability to set up plants, and not-in-my-backyard attitude of people,” adds Suchitra.