Residents raise stink over plastic piles

Vijayawada: Thousands of people living in Ajit Singh Nagar and Vambay Colony areas have been facing  problems due to  huge piles of garbage at the Excel Energy plant and nearby areas for the past 10 years. The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has been dumping the garbage on the premises of Excel Energy plant, which used to produce energy nearly two decades ago.

However, it was closed due to technical reasons about 10 years ago. In spite of the closure of the plant, the VMC continued dumping garbage mostly plastic covers and other plastic material at the plant site. As a result, thousands of tonnes of garbage, mostly polythene covers, plastic material, tyres, rubber and other materials got piled up in heaps.

After many years of protests by local residents, the State government-owned  Swacha Andhra Pradesh entered into MoU with the Tamil Nadu-based Zigma Global Environ Solution for bio-mining and reuse of garbage.

The Swacha Andhra Pradesh Mission will pay Rs.6.5 crore and the VMC will spend Rs.8 crore for segregation and removal of garbage. As part of the agreement, conveyor belt and machinery were installed recently and segregation of garbage was started. It will segregate  into plastic material, stones, iron material etc. 

Six months passed since the MoU was signed in December 2017. The segregation is progressing at slow pace. Less than 10 percent of the garbage has been segregated and removed in six months. As per the agreement, thousands of tonnes of garbage mostly plastic covers, polythene covers should be removed in 18 months. 

An official supervising the bio-mining process said the segregation work is continuing without hurdles in the plant. If the segregation and garbage lifting process continues at such a slow pace, it will take another two to three years for clearing the thousands of tonnes of garbage.

Till then the local residents will have to suffer. When asked about the slow progress of works, the official said efforts were on to speed up the segregation and bio-mining of garbage. Hundreds of tonnes of garbage was dumped on the road outside the plant causing horrible conditions to the thousands of residents.

During the rainy season, flies and mosquitoes increase in Ajit Singh Nagar and Vambay Colony due to piling up of garbage. Besides, ground water is also getting polluted due to garbage. The residents are suffering from stink and hazardous environs for the past 10 years.