Dump This Practice – Kochi garbage fire is a warning to all cities

Source: The post is based on the article “Dump This Practice – Kochi garbage fire is a warning to all cities” published in The Times of India on 11th March 2023.

Syllabus: GS – 3 – Environmental pollution and degradation.

Relevance: About Kochi garbage fire.

News: Kochi became clouded in toxic fumes after the Brahmapuram dumpyard caught fire recently. The Kochi garbage fire made many people in close vicinity to shift out temporarily. The winds carried noxious dioxins and furans inside faraway homes.

What is the reason behind Kochi garbage fire incident?

The waste treatment plant has been operating without a licence since 2016. This is because, they kept failing at various mandated benchmarks, from plastic waste segregation to bio-mining of legacy waste. Since it is the only dump yard in Kochi, the debris kept rising.

What Kochi garbage fire incident highlights about India’s waste treatment plants?

Kochi garbage fire incident is a familiar occurrence across the country. Unsanitary mixed waste dumps are regularly leaking serious health hazards into the air, whether it is the Adharwadi and Deonar landfills in Maharashtra or the massive garbage mountains in Ghazipur, Okhla and Bhalswa in Delhi.

Municipal bodies have less accountability for waste treatment. Hence, the waste turns into totally unsustainable ones.

More urbanisation is generating more waste daily. Scientific management of waste will be the backbone of India’s cities.