9:26 PM Apr 24, 1996
INDIA'S FAST GROWING CITIES PLAN TO START BURNING THE GROWING MOUNTAINS
But incineration is an even greater public health risk than uncleared rubbish, declares Greenpeace which is campaigning against the import of this technology by local industry and civic authorities. Researchers from Greenpeace recently toured India with a leading U.S. chemical expert to study waste production and disposal by civic authorities, hospitals and industry. More and more Indian cities will have incinerators. Ruling on a public interest petition, the Supreme Court last month ordered that all hospitals with more than 50 beds in the Indian capital must have incinerators. A year ago, the Ministry of Environment and Forests made it mandatory for all hospitals with more than 30 beds or dealing with more than 1,000 patients a month to install incinerators. In Calcutta, Greenpeace investigators learnt from officials that the World Bank had cleared a project to fund incinerators in 170 hospitals in the state of West Bengal. Last year, the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources advertised in leading media publications for urban waste energy projects, which Greenpeace suspects will be based on garbage burning incinerators. We know that they have received a number of offers, but we don't know the details, Anne Leonard of Greenpeace told IPS. Greenpeace has documentary evidence to prove that many industrial houses are planning to import the technology. The World Bank is finalising a huge loan to set up waste incinerators in India, she adds. India's municipal garbage has an increasingly high chlorine content, mainly in the form of plastics. When burnt at high temperatures in incinerators these release toxic elements, the deadliest of which are dioxins. My major concern is that people will not treat dioxin as a health hazard, says U.S. expert Paul Connett who has studied incinerators in the West. No one ever told me about dioxin, the government official involved in finalising the Bank-funded incinerator project for West Bengal told him. But this is known to damage the immune system and is carcinogenic. Dioxins are virtually indestructible and accumulate in body tissue. In the United States, where studies show alarmingly high levels of dioxin in mother's milk, citizens groups campaigning against waste incineration have stalled the installation of 280 incinerators over the past decade. Greenpeace is specially worried by the fact that all big hospitals will soon start incinerating their wastes. This (incineration of medical waste) converts a simple biological problem into a formidable chemical problem, says chemical expert Connett. Dioxins are released when infectious and non-infectious hospital wastes which contain chlorine compounds are incinerated. Connett travelled with Greenpeace toxic waste investigators to key Indian metropolises and other big urban centres to discuss the dangers of incineration with municipal officials, hospitals, citizens' groups and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). It is possible to burn wastes without endangering the environment, but this will need incredibly expensive incinerators which are way beyond the budget of authorities involved here, Connett said. Instead he advises good waste management which can solve the problem to a large extent. The first order of business is good housekeeping, is the expert's advice to hospital authorities. Separating the infectious from the non-infectious waste takes care of the bulk of the problem. The former are 'sharps', like needles and knife blades which can be either destroyed or sterilised and re-used. 'Non-sharps', including bandages and surgery debris like body parts which spread pathogens, can be burnt safely if they are not wrapped in plastic. Connett is encouraged by the positive response of hospital officials in India when told about the dangers of incinerators and ways to minimise them. The Delhi Medical Association has set up a panel to study medical waste disposal. India's armies of child and adult ragpickers, are an efficient and environment-friendly way of handling municipal wastes. Nearly a fifth of the 4,500 tonnes of municipal garbage generated daily by the Indian capital is scavenged by 75,000 ragpickers who service the waste recycling trade. They need respect and protection, says Connett. Initiatives by NGOs show that ragpicking need not damage the health and dignity of the scavengers, like that by the Calcutta-based group FOCUS which has outfitted ragpickers in overalls and gloves. India's 4,000-odd urban centres are estimated to produce some 8.5 million tonnes of solid waste annually. This is expected to grow to 12 million tonnes by the turn of the century.