This story is from February 12, 2019

Garbage fumes make pockets of south Kolkata gasp for breath

Garbage fumes make pockets of south Kolkata gasp for breath
Fire brigade personnel douse the flames near the under-construction Satyajit Ray Metro station
KOLKATA: Fumes from garbage set on fire have been troubling areas near the Dhapa dumping ground for long. And now, the problem has travelled further south to plague residents of Ajoynagar and Survey Park.
One such spot where burning garbage has been creating air pollution is near the under-construction Satyajit Ray Metro station, by the side of the service road adjacent to Chhayanat Cooperative of Calcutta Greens.
On Sunday, garbage was set on fire around noon and the locals had to call the fire brigade to douse the flames. “This place has been a complete nuisance for the last six months. Apart from creating toxic fumes, the fire also damaged quite a few trees. We had to call the fire brigade to douse the fire,” said Utpal Banerjee, a local who has been residing at Chhayanat Cooperative housing since 2005.
TimesView

Civic agencies often miss the local problems while trying to make sense of the bigger picture. This happens to be a case in point. We must realise that many of our more serious problems will take care of themselves if we can sort out the local issues.


“The roadside eateries often dump waste like thermocol plates and then set them on fire. Not only on Sunday, garbage is often set on fire here. The matter has been informed to the local civic authorities but not much has happened so far,” Banerjee complained.
fumes

Ward 109 councillor Ananya Banerjee claimed garbage was cleared from most places in her area on a regular basis. “Garbage is cleared by KMC as much as possible on a daily basis. However, there are some places where waste is dumped at the roadside or in vacant plots,” she said.
According to green activist Subhas Dutta, this is a problem in many places across the city. “The practice of burning dumped garbage poses a health threat as setting materials like plastic or thermocol turns the air toxic,” he said.

JU professor Sadhan Ghosh, who is also the president of International Society of Waste Management, Air and Water, said that except a few KMC wards, waste segregation and collection was not done properly. “The only solution is to introduce the process of segregated waste collection” he said.
According to the requirements of the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, all residents’ welfare and market associations, gated communities and institutions with more than 5,000sqm area should ensure segregation of waste at source and facilitate collection of waste in separate streams in partnership with the local body.
End of Article
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA