Waste dumping has resumed at the centralised waste treatment plant at Brahmapuram in Kerala’s Ernakulam district, even as the fire that broke out more than a week ago is yet to be fully doused. Videos of lorries carrying waste to the plant, with the accompaniment of the Regionally Aligned Force (RAF) have been circulated by local residents and environmentalists. The dumping of the waste at the site restarted on the night of Thursday, March 9, and continued on Friday. Brahmapuram residents are planning to move the court for a solution to the continued waste dumping in the absence of any action to dispose of the accumulated waste in the plant.
Residents alleged that plastic waste was also among the waste dumped at the site since Thursday. This is despite the March 8 government directive that no plastic waste be dumped on the site, which came after a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. This was following a massive fire that broke out at the dumping site in Brahmapuram on the night of March 2. Toxic fumes from the fire continue to engulf parts of Kochi city even after ten days, leading to several health issues in residents, including breathing difficulties, cough, headache, and irritation in the eyes.
“The waste is being dumped again with police and CRPF (RAF) security. This includes plastic and other kinds of waste, despite the fact that it is the presence of such non-biodegradable substances in the legacy waste at the plant that has made it difficult to douse the fire completely. We are trying to mobilise Brahmapuram residents suffering due to these issues to petition the court. We need to address this rather than continue to suffer in silence,” PN Suresh, a Brahmapuram resident who lives 1.5 km away from the plant, told TNM. Suresh is a taxi driver who also runs a paying guest facility at Brahmapuram.
His daughter, 21-year-old Athira Nair, a student of Cochin University in Kalamassery, has not attended classes in the past week due to a headache caused by inhaling the smoke from the plant. “The smoke flows to our area mostly in the morning and the evening. When it comes, there is no point in locking the doors — the smoke would still enter the house. We struggle to sleep. Those who are not from Brahmapuram think that we suffer this only this year because the fire was not doused in time. That is not the case. The waste is burnt every year and that causes us health issues. Flies and snails are aplenty in the area. We cannot not keep our food open even for a few minutes,” Suresh added.
Abdul Basheer KA, another resident of Brahmapuram, echoed Suresh’s opinion. “The smoke forms a thick layer in the atmosphere by evening. I am a cardiac patient. I experience difficulty speaking in the evenings due to inhaling the smoke. Now they have begun dumping plastic waste again. Children contract dysentery while elders have breathing difficulties, sore throat, and other issues. Two ministers – Industries Minister P Rajeev (who is in charge of the Ernakulam district) and Local self government minister MB Rajesh – visited the plant and asked us not to panic. But how can we even panic when we just cannot breathe,” Abdul Basheer said. A former Congress ward member of the Vadavucode-Puthencruz grampanchayat, Abdul Basheer also lives at a distance of 1.5 km from the plant. Recollecting a 2010 fire incident at the plant, Abdul Basheer said that sand had been used to douse the fire back then. “We had initially objected to it, but the then district collector Dr M Beena convinced us about the need for it and we agreed,” he added.