NGT raps Kerala govt. for widening gaps in waste management

The Bench observed that the waste processing facilities are grossly inadequate and even cities like Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi lack adequate processing facilities

The Principal Bench of the National Green Tribunal has recorded its disappointment over the attitude of the Kerala government in not fixing accountability for the continuing gaps in the management of solid and liquid waste generated in the State daily.

The Bench led by its chairperson Adarsh Kumar Goel, and comprising judicial member Sudhir Agarwal and expert member Prof. A. Senthil Vel asked how the rule of law will be achieved, if the State assumes that no one is responsible for such gross violations of law and directions of the Supreme Court and the tribunal.

“Even after three years, neither there is adequate compliance nor the same projected in immediate future. No accountability no performance audit, no entries in ACRs [Annual Confidential Reports of officials responsible],” it said in the latest order in the case related to the non-compliance of Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 and other environmental issues in the State.

The government had stated before the tribunal that around 781 tonnes per day out of the 3,472 tonnes of solid waste generated daily were not processed as per the norms. It had admitted that the gap in the liquid waste treatment was around 51 million litres daily, indicating that the sewage is discharged illegally into waterbodies or dumped in the open against the rules. The estimate generation of sewage was 1,192 million litres daily.

The Bench observed that the waste processing facilities are grossly inadequate and even cities like Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi lack adequate processing facilities. Compost produced at individual levels and their usage and linkages of MCFs [Material Collection Facilities] with end users/processors have not been duly explained. Timelines indicated are too sketchy and in violation of directions of the Supreme Court, Tribunal and the statutory mandate, it said.

On the widening gaps in liquid waste management, the tribunal said that the distinction between sewage and sullage and their treatment by way of segregation and existing facilities and contemplated plan had no definite execution plan.

Cities like Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and others lacked requisite facilities. The dependency is on septic tanks and soak pits, which also needs to be examined in context of ground water safety, it said. The Bench had also taken into account the report on the non-compliance of waste management rules submitted by A. V. Ramakrishna Pillai, chairman of the State Level Monitoring Committee on Solid Waste Management.