CHENNAI: Residents of two wards of Madambakkam, a residential area situated around six kilometers from Tambaram, have been living amidst a blanket of smog for the last three months. This isolated smog, caused by a smoldering landfill which is in no man’s land in between the two wards, doesn’t dissipate and people are at the mercy of the winds, which decide which ward will take the direct beating.
In order to make space for the five tonnes of trash generated everyday, the Madambakkam town panchayat has allegedly resorted to setting fire to the landfill near the Madambakkam Sivan Temple.
When Express visited the 80 cent landfill on Tuesday, 8-foot piles of unsegregated domestic and commercial waste filled the high walled enclosure.
An opened gate had let in cows, which were feasting on the decaying food waste. “We’ve to set fire to the garbage to make way for more trash,” said M Murugan, a sanitary worker at the landfill.
According to residents of Ward 3 and 4, the landfill has been smoldering since mid-March, and has continued unabated despite recent showers.
“After repeated requests, the panchayat tried dousing the garbage with water from the nearby lake, but after a week, they went back to setting fire to the landfill,” said a mother of two coughing children from Ward 3.
Everyday, 300 children from nearby villages — Noothencheri and Vengaivasal — cross this smoldering mess on their way to Zion school in Madambakkam. “Children are the worst-affected. Breathing this smoke is just like smoking cigarettes, if not worse,” said Dr V Sitharaman, who lives 150m away from the landfill.
An anesthesiologist at Kamakshi Hospital, Sitharaman runs two clinics near his residence in the evening. He claimed to be receiving more patients with respiratory problems like asthma and nasal irritation. “I can tell asthma patients not to eat ice cream, but I can’t ask them to stop breathing, can I?” he sighed.
The panchayat, in addition to making clean air a scarcity for residents of the area, has also wrecked groundwater of the two wards. The toxic ash from the landfill has seeped into the groundwater table.
A private water quality test conducted by Mettex lab, Guindy, in May deemed water from the two wards unfit for consumption. The test revealed that the water had turned alkaline.
The executive officer in-charge of Madambakkam panchayat, Ravikumar was quick to blame residents of the two wards for living next to a landfill.
When Express asked him if the panchayat was setting fire to the garbage to make space for more garbage, he said, “Houses next to the landfill have been built on poramboku land.”
However, the residents say it is the panchayat which has approved the houses on Pillaiyar Kovil street, abutting the landfill, and signed off for water and electricity connections for houses by the landfill.
“All houses here have patta,” said C Mahesh, a resident campaigning for closure of the landfill. Residents have been told for the past decade that the landfill will be closed and waste will be dumped at a 25 acre facility in Keerapakkam.
The residents of the two wards had filed a case in the National Green Tribunal early this year. The case is pending before the tribunal.