For nearly two weeks, residents living in Kochi Municipal Corporation (KMC) limits and nearby local bodies were exposed to toxic fumes emanating from the Brahmapuram waste dump fire. Studies have shown that smoke from such fires contain hazardous substances including dioxins and furans, which qualifies it as an environmental disaster. Enterprises run by corporate companies or the government have the onus to compensate the public if they cause damage to property and health of citizens through their operations, say activists.
¨We have no idea how much dioxins people have been exposed to in Kochi. When such disasters occur the District Collector has to declare relief based on the Public Liability Insurance Act and application forms for compensation claims should be distributed. Till now we have not seen such a declaration in Kochi,¨ says lawyer and environmental activist Harish Vasudevan. TNM had reported on studies by the National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), which showed dioxin contamination during previous incidents of fire at Brahmapuram.
The Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991, is defined as a statute to provide immediate relief to the persons affected by accidents involving hazardous substances. Brahmapuram, for the past 16 years, has been a dump site for unsegregated refuse and is estimated to hold 5.5 lakh cubic metres of waste including wet, dry and hazardous domestic waste. In addition to it, Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) from biomined legacy waste was also being stored at the dump site. Research has shown that RDF is linked to several fire and explosion related incidents and needs specific protective measures. It is unclear whether such measures were followed at Brahmapuram.
The Public Liability Insurance Act defines "handling" of a hazardous substance as manufacture, processing, treatment, package, storage and transportation, which could bring a Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) dump under its ambit. But there is a catch. The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, is vague in its definition of hazardous waste and this has resulted in many households disposing of domestic hazardous waste along with dry waste, which ultimately reach dump sites.
The Act postulates that every owner shall take, before starting to handle any hazardous substance, one or more insurance policies providing for contracts of insurance whereby he is insured against liability to give relief.
“The State Pollution Control Board has filed a report before the Kerala High Court saying the fire has caused severe pollution in Kochi in a 10 kilometre radius around Brahmapuram, If this is true why is the government not declaring public insurance to people who were exposed to the smoke. There would be many ordinary people who would require treatment,” says Harish Vasudevan highlighting the need for free public insurance. If a state cannot do this then nothing more can be worse, he adds.
Under the Public Liability Insurance Act a person can claim relief by submitting an application. ¨Where death or injury to any person (other than a workman) or damage to any property has resulted from an accident, the owner shall be liable to give such relief as is specified in the schedule for such death, injury or damage,” says the Act. Here “injury” includes permanent total or permanent partial disability or sickness resulting from an accident. As per this Act, the Collector has the powers of civil court while deciding on the relief.
The Kerala government took several steps under sections of the Disaster Management Act to address the fire breakout at Brahmapuram and to avoid such incidents in the future. This shows that the state considers it a disaster, points out Harish.
M Robert, 60, a resident of Vytilla in Kochi, had to be admitted to a hospital due to respiratory disease, while smoke was billowing from Brahmapuram waste dump. His son told TNM that they are spending a huge amount of money, but were not sure whether his father became sick due to the smoke. “He had a history of respiratory disease, but had no symptoms for the last many years. But suddenly he is having issues with breathing. If we had a system to find out whether it is caused due to the smoke and compensation were provided, it would be beneficial for people like us,” he says.
Where any offence under this Act has been committed by a company, every person who, at the time the offence was committed, was directly in charge of, and was responsible for the conduct of the business shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence and liable to be proceeded against. Where an offence under this Act has been committed by any Department of Government, the Head of the Department shall be deemed to be guilty of the offence.
CM Joy, Professor Environmental Science, Cochin University of Science and Technology is also of the view that the government has to announce such relief at the earliest.