TIRUCHY: After a relatively quiet period of two years, garbage piles mounted up at Ariyamangalam have begun to report minor outbreaks of fire over the past few days. Residents attribute the recent spurt in fires to the Tiruchy corporation once again disposing of garbage at the dumping yard. Ever since bio-mining work was taken up at the site in February 2020, no major fire outbreaks were reported at the location.
Now in its second phase of the bio-mining project, the civic body has so far spent about Rs 74.4 crore to recover the 47-acre land through bio-mining. With so much money spent to clear the garbage in Ariyamangalam, residents now wonder why the corporation has begun dumping waste there again.
"Every day three to five trucks reach Ariyamangalam to dump garbage and this has been going on for the last four weeks. If they continue to do this, we may again face major fire outbreaks during summer. It is unclear why they have to send garbage again to this yard when they currently have 40 micro-compost units to process the waste," said B Ramalingam, senior citizen and resident.
In 2019, a major fire broke out in Ariyamangalam dumping yard, and the fumes could be brought under control only after a week and 1.5 lakh litres of water. This incident compelled the corporation to stop waste dumping in Ariyamangalam and start bio-mining. But, now, the same authorities are creating a deja vu for residents in Ariyamangalam.
"Why do they resume sending waste to this yard? This would only worsen the situation in Ariyamangalam and delay the land recovery. Therefore, the corporation should give immediate direction to stop sending garbage to this yard," Anjali M, a resident. Though many senior officials remained tight-lipped on this issue, some of them claimed that it is only a temporary arrangement.
"We had cleared most of the legacy waste from Ariymanagalam. However, we are currently sending a certain quantity of unsegregated waste there and the firm conducting bio-mining is processing it. Therefore, the waste would not get piled up for a long time and the yard is unlikely to face major fire outbreaks," a senior official said.