Any casual visitor to the city will note that it has an overwhelming garbage problem, one that its residents seem to be blind to. The statistics, as we quoted in September last year, were alarming – Chennai generates higher per capita quantity of waste than Kolkata or Delhi. Around 6400 tonnes of rubbish are dumped every day all over the city, and this does not include 9 tonnes of medical waste from the ever burgeoning number of hospitals. There is no reason to think that the scenario has improved since then.

Our Corporation, it would appear, has given up on this issue, as it has on several others. Apart from building enormous collection points at street corners, all of which collapse within days, it has done precious little. Privatisation of garbage collection continues to remain confined to three zones in the city, 15 years after the idea was first mooted. Not that there is much difference between the way the Corporation or the private operator collects the garbage.

And when collected, the waste does not exactly vanish. The Corporation continues to send it all out to landfills, a practice that is now frowned upon in all developed countries and the ‘world class cities’ that Chennai wants to ape. Time was when these landfills, at Perungudi and Kodungaiyur, were far removed from city limits. Now, with the metropolis having grown all around them, residents in those areas are protesting vociferously about the dumping. There are online petitions and court cases on this matter and yet the practice continues unabated. The Corporation has no other solution in sight.

What is ironic is that the civic body has not chosen to tackle the problem at its very source – the homes, the shops and the establishments – where the garbage is generated. At present, there are no limits on what any resident or institution of the city can throw out – ranging from personal hygiene products to construction debris. Everything is carted out of private precincts and dumped at street corners near rubbish bins leaving it to the civic body to clear. With the wastes leaving their immediate presence, our citizens are in no way concerned about what happens thereafter.

This has to be put an end to immediately. And if Chennai wants a role model for it, there is always Singapore, which it wants to be a clone of some day. For that matter, have you ever seen any modern international city where residents just throw their rubbish on to the streets? This is what the Corporation needs to control. It has to insist on segregation of waste at source and must insist on it being retained within the premises from where it has to be removed by the civic body at designated times and days.

This will automatically result in two improvements. Firstly, since the garbage will be segregated at source, its disposal will be that much easier. Part of the reason why Chennai has such a huge problem of waste on its hands is that it is not broken up into smaller manageable components. Secondly, since the rubbish remains on the premises till it is collected, there will automatically be a discipline in controlling it. After all, if a building or office is asked to make space for its waste, it would want to minimise it, would it not? The Corporation can also impose restrictions on the maximum quantity of waste that can be generated by a unit – this can be classified on the basis of the nature of activity – domestic, industrial, shop, establishment, etc. Fines can be imposed in case these limits are exceeded.

Of course, the Corporation has to still find a better solution for the final disposal of waste. But with the above-defined discipline in place, it could find the problem somewhat easier to manage. But will the civic body listen?