THE stench was offensive, to say the least. It had the residents in and around Vattiyoorkkavu, the most affected areas, puzzled for more than a fortnight. The stink would come at odd hours, as late as 11.30 in the night or as early as 6 in the morning. Sometimes the repulsive odour lasts for over an hour, sometimes it goes away with the wind.
But it had every housewife in the area look around her courtyard for that dead rat or a rotten garbage bag that the Kudumbasree worker missed. It had every resident look over the wall into that vacant plot to see if someone had dumped animal waste there. Nothing. But the stink persisted.
THE STENCH
It was first reported by the residents of Thoppumukku near Vattiyoorkkavu. A couple of days later, there were sporadic reports from Arappura and Karimankulam. It became a widespread and an almost daily phenomenon in PTP Nagar and it even reached Maruthankuzhy last week.
As the reach of the repulsive odour became wider, people became frantic.
Councillors had a tough time pacifying the residents, even as they themselves had no clue as to the origin of the stench. ``There has been a number of complaints and we are looking into them. Right now, we don’t think it has anything to do with Vilappilsala,’’ said Vattiyoorkkavu Councillor Binu, who obviously did not want to create a panic.
THE RUMOURS
But the residents feared the worst. They recognised the stink - it was just like that unpleasant odour when any lorry headed to Vilappilsala passes by.
When the authorities failed, or did not think it important to give a satisfactory explanation, rumour mills started rolling - there was something hugely wrong with the garbage treatment plant, they were dumping wastes in Vattiyoorkkavu, the processing of garbage was not taking place, they were piling up garbage outside the plant and so on and so forth.
We at Expresso decided to look into the matter, and first went to the office of the Centre for Environment and Development (CED), who were running the garbage treatment plant for the Corporation.
THE CED
Babu Ambatt, the director of CED, was very forthcoming. ``Yes, there is a smell. Even we could detect this at our office in Thozhuvancode. There is no use denying the problem. But despite the large excess of waste that we get, and the limitations of space, we are trying our best to manage the problem through scientific means,’’ he said.
A visit to the plant at Vilappilsala proved the rumours to be wrong. Though only equipped to handle just about 160 tonnes of waste per day, the plant was dealing with a whopping 250 tonnes per day, functioning for nearly 22 hours. There was no shutdown, there was no piling up outside the plant and thanks to the white cranes, there was not even a single house-fly on the premises.
``The smell is because of the changes in climatic and geographic factors,’’ said Babu Ambatt.
But CED’s argument that the decomposing bacteria was less active because of the cold temperature seemed weak as Meteorology Director Ramachandran Nair said that there was no huge drop in temperature these past weeks, when compared to previous years. ``In addition, because of a trough in the Bay of Bengal, we have been seeing cloudy days and higher minimum temperatures hovering around 22 degree Celsius,’’ he said.
THE FACTS
Executive director of Sanitation Mission and eminent scientist Ajayakumar Varma said the lowering of temperature has contributed significantly to the spread of the stench. ``The air is dense and diffusion does not take place as easily as in summer,’’ he said.
The wastes are piled in long rows called windrows, which get upturned every seven days for at least five weeks. All materials change places and during this period, aerobic bacteria will decompose and break down the waste. ``But when the moisture is more, proper aeration of the heaps does not take place. Also, since the amount of waste is more, the size of each windrow is more and the area for aeration gets reduced,’’ said Ajayakumar Varma.
That the direction of the wind is from North-East to South-West during the non-monsoon months may also be contributing to the stench being carried into the city.
THE REMEDIES
Expansion of the unit to give more space between windrows so that decomposition is carried out in a faster and better mode.
Setting up a leachate treatment plant, which will solve the problem of the smelly leachate flowing down into streams and rivers. The recycled waste water can be used in the plant itself.
Setting up a unit for Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) so that large degradable waste like coconut leaves can be shred, compressed and made into pellets that can be used in kilns and even crematorium. Developing a sanitary landfill site for the rejects and capping of the rejects, with a clay layer first and then a high density polyvinyl sheet, will check the problem of leachate and the stench.
The proposals are all with the Corporation and a lot of money is coming from the JNNURM.
A plea to the Mayor: Please don’t let this get caught up in red tape. The city needs it urgently, so does Vilappilsala.
reema_narendran@epmltd.com