How the Dosa Crumbles
Chennai is fast becoming the world's e-waste dumping ground
The stately Ripon Building, a mammoth edifice built in 1913, is today the
headquarters of Chennai Corporation, which takes care of the key civic
infrastructure issues like water, sanitation, garbage disposal among others. But
the efficacy of the Corporation in disposing of the 300 metric tons (MT) of
organic and inorganic waste Chennai city generates everyday is indeed debatable.
This becomes very palpable when you travel a few yards north of Ripon Building
and take a right turn. When you wonder if you are indeed part of a city that
boasts of hi-tech technology parks like Tidel and Mahindra City.
Enter Kannapar Thidal-the burgeoning e-waste processing outfits of Chennai
are right here. Narrow lanes welcome scrap dealers, IT manufacturers or anybody
trying to rake in moolah from scrap. The place, popularly called Moore Market in
bygone days, today wears a ghostly look. After navigating the heavy metal scrap
arranged in rows of shops, the air is thick with the smell of rust and the
cacophony generated by hammers meeting scrap gives the place an eerie feel. A
handful of shops down the street deal with various computer scrap parts. One
shop deals with 486 and 386 machines, while another stocks HDDs, impact printers
and circuit boards.
Leading brands TVSE, Seagate, IBM, are strewn around. A left turn takes you
to where VGA monitors are neatly stacked on a bench, waiting for prospective
buyers. Up ahead looms a CRT pile-up, with more than 50 CRTs dumped beside the
road. An onlooker says, "I have heard explosions during summer, with the
CRTs exploding in the heat. "
It has been a dangerous evolution. Fringe areas like Urapakkam, Puzhal and
MEPZ are becoming dumping yards for companies. Units housed in MEPZ deal with
imported e-waste. More specialized centers are landing grounds for imported
e-waste.
Chennai's advantage of having a port makes it easy for the world to dump
its electronic refuse here, unmindful of the health and environmental hazards to
the local population. A recent Toxics Link report noted that Chennai is fast
becoming India's leading e-waste hub.
Shrikanth G in
Chennai
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