The very process of burning waste, experts hold, releases toxic by-products into the environment, ranging from cancer-causing exhaust gases, to residue ash capable of polluting nearby soil and water resources.
By Ashutosh Baluni
Following the World Bank’s public expression of intent to invest in four Waste-To-Energy (WTE) plants in Gujarat, a group of civil society organisations led by the Delhi-based Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA) has written to the International Finance Corporation (a member of the World Bank group), demanding it to cut ties with a project that goes “against their principles”.
The letter is jointly drafted by the Centre for Financial Accountability, National Hawkers Federation, International Accountability Project, and the affected community represented by Ker Jayendrasinh, Rohit Prajapathi and Shailendrasinh R Jadeja.
On July 7, the Delhi-based civil society group and its partners, committed to monitoring financial institutions and their role in development projects, wrote a 27-page letter to the International Finance Corporation (IFC), demanding the World Bank body to reverse its decision to invest Rs. 330 crores in four WTE plants in Gujarat, citing the project’s potential to harm the environment, the neighbouring communities and their livelihoods, along with “glaring flaws” found in their Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) reports, as reasons.
“Should IFC invest in this project, it would go against its Performance Standards and against the principles that IFC stands for,” says the letter.
The four plants, which are proposed to cumulatively generate 52.5 MW of electricity by burning solid waste, are owned by Abellon Clean Energy Limited (ACEL), a Gujarat-based company working to setup four WTE plants in Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara, and Jamnagar.
The latter plant in Jamnagar, operational since November 2021, has received numerous complaints from nearby residents of Gandhinagar and Nandanpark localities, perturbed by loud noises, foul odour and deposition of black soot on their houses caused by the plant. On 15 December 2021, a show cause notice was issued to the plant by the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) for “non-compliance” under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981.
Later, on 28 December, the GPCB carried out a thorough inspection of the plant, revealing that it had been dumping solid waste outside its premises, resulting a 2,000 metric tonne pile. The Jamnagar WTE nevertheless powered through the setbacks despite visible public ire.
More discoveries
CFA provided YouTube links of local media coverage of the protests in the complaint letter, implying that ACEL had violated one of IFC’s performance standards.
Additionally, the CFA found flaws in ACEL’s declaration of their project plans and the accompanying social and environmental impact the plants will cause. In one such instance, ACEL is accused of inflating the amount of energy the Jamnagar WTE can produce by deliberately using their own calculations, instead of referring to government records. Other accusations include failing to mention the existence of another WTE project in Ahmedabad and painting a false image of the Ahmedabad waste management system in a bid to justify the plant’s importance.
“While proposing the 1000 ton/day WTE incinerator plant, the ESIA report conveniently omits to mention that Ahmedabad already has another WTE incineration plant to process 1000 TPD of MSW in its advanced stages of completion,” says the letter.
Further scrutiny revealed a puzzling schemata of waste collection, with plants proposed to source some of their waste from other cities. For instance, the Jamnagar WTE plant, in addition to collecting its input waste from its local municipality, was also sourcing its waste from Rajkot (92 km away) and Vadodara (372 km away). The CFA argued that in doing so, ACEL could start “a scramble for waste leading to various conflicts and improper functioning of the plant.”
Comparing ACEL’s claims with government data led to more discoveries, including possible violations of Indian law. These are mainly rooted to the fact that out of the 35,734 tons of plastic burned by the Jamnagar plant in FY 2022-23, 9,647 tons consisted of recyclable plastic, which potentially violates the Solid Waste Management rules, 2016, and Plastic Waste Management rules, 2016.
Toxic emissions
Another worrying implication of the aforementioned statistic surfaces when considering that Jamnagar produces only 250 tons of waste daily; the WTE plant burned 35,734 tons in a year, which roughly translates to 100 tons of plastic burned every day.
“This is hugely problematic for the environment and health of the city and causes huge pollution. This violates not only the Performance Standards of IFC but also the Plastic waste management rules of the GOI which says that only non-recyclable plastics have to (sic) be incinerated,” warns the report.
While waste-to-energy methods have been included in policy documents as a golden path towards solving the waste crisis, experts across the world and within India have been less convinced. The very process of burning waste, experts hold, releases toxic by-products into the environment, ranging from cancer-causing exhaust gases, to residue ash capable of polluting nearby soil and water resources.
In fact, CFA points out that a 2021 report by the Central Pollution Control Board found that three Delhi WTE plants were crossing the prescribed standards for toxic emissions; 10 times higher at Okhla, five times higher at Bawana and 2.7 times higher at Ghazipur.
The CFA also contends that WTE plants can be seen as “job killers” within the local waste management economies worldwide — which gets amplified considering India’s largely informal setup of kabadi-wallahs and waste-pickers.
The solid waste that forms the lifeblood for WTE plants mainly consists of paper, plastics, cardboard and cloth, which also forms a large part of the earnings of waste-pickers. In an interview with the International Alliance of Waste Pickers, representatives of the Ahmedabad chapter of the Self Employed Women Association (SEWA) expressed their fear that once operational, the WTE plants will destroy livelihoods.
Image: Wikimedia
