Delhi Environment Minister’s assurance on Okhla plant welcome but DPCC’s legacy of complicity remains a concern

The Okhla Waste to Energy (WTE) Incinerator plant by JITF Urban Infrastructure Limited (Jindal Ecopolis) has violated every rule in the rule book including environmental clearance conditions with complicity from the DPCC. An inquiry must be ordered to examine the dubious circumstances in which environmental regulations were admittedly violated with impunity. Based on the documents on record, complaints of the residents, the letter of Union Minister of Environment & Forests, fraudulent misrepresentation of facts regarding the project being in accordance with the Supreme Court’s order, minutes of the public hearing and the EIA report, there is a compelling logic for conducting an inquiry and fixing accountability for the acts of omission and commission of the officials in this matter.      

This lawlessness was unleashed on the residents of Okhla and Okhla Bird Sanctuary by Prithiviraj Jindal’s waste to energy plant based on unapproved and experimental Chinese technology. DPCC has consistently been indulgent and has been misleading the authorities disregarding the fact of Okhla colonies which are getting engulfed from the dust and pollution from the plant including New Friends Colony, Maharani Bagh, Ishwar Nagar, Sukhdev Vihar, Jamia Nagar, Jasola Vihar and Sarita Vihar Jamia Millia Islamia university, Holy Family hospital and several other colonies and institutions. 

The fact is that burning or incineration or combustion is unambiguously polluting. It may be noted that mother's milk in areas where waste burning takes place has already been tested and found to contain high amount of dioxins. Dioxins, are well known carcinogenic chemicals. Incinerators also emit greenhouse gases, especially from plastics. Incineration drives a negative spiral of increased energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Also, restrictive policies in typical incinerator contracts require a set amount of garbage. These contracts impose fees that that are a disincentive for a city to improve waste prevention strategies (i.e. reduction), recycling and composting collections.

In sum, the waste incinerator projects are technologically incompatible with reducing dioxins emissions and at the same time relies on minimum guaranteed waste flows. It indirectly promotes continued waste generation while hindering waste prevention, reuse, composting, recycling, and recycling-based community economic development. It costs cities and municipalities more and provides fewer jobs than comprehensive recycling and composting. It prohibits the development of local recycling-based businesses.

In keeping with the characteristics of Indian municipal solid waste -- low calorific value, high moisture content, high proportion of organic matter, and considerable inerts like earth, sand and grit – that the Supreme Court Committee on Solid Waste Management suggested simple technologies and easily achievable standards with liberal timeframe knowing the limitations of urban local bodies and their institutional capabilities. It made recommendations to improve the finances of urban local bodies and to boost the composting of waste and recycling industry in this field. Recycling can eliminate a large chunk of the problem. Wet biodegradable wastes (e.g. cooked and uncooked foods and flowers) make excellent for composting. Indian soil is deficient in carbon and that is also the need of the hour to enrich the soil. In the US alone, recycling conserves an equivalent of approximately 11.9 billion gallons of gasoline, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking one-fifth (40 million) of all US cars off the roads every year.

The move by the incineration industry to term waste incinerators as 'renewable energy' projects is not only fraudulent but also dangerous. The 25 year power purchase agreement for purchase of 50 % of what is generated (4-5 MW) by the Jindal’s plant in Okhla must be rescinded in view of the above facts. Municipal solid waste is not considered to be a renewable energy source since it tends to be a mixture of fuels that can be traced back to renewable and non-renewable sources. An inquiry is needed to examine as how much power has been generated and added by this unit. The agreement was signed under the misleading assumption that WTE is renewable energy. The advocates of incinerators prefer to pre-empt segregation and recycling efforts being made by municipalities and communities around the world. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) is due to hear the matter at next date of hearing is on 19-02-2014.

A delegation of Okhla Anti-Incinerator Committee (OAIC) and ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA) met the minister on January 27, 2014 to apprise him of the scandal of the waste based power plant and shared documents which nail the lies of the company that runs the plant and the regulators.