Plaint filed with UN forum against Okhla waste plant

NEW DELHI: Residents of Sukhdev Vihar have filed a complaint with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) against the Okhla waste-to-energy plant for making “false claims” about the technology used to earn carbon credits. The complaint filed through lawyer Rakesh Matwa alleges “serious deviation from approved and validated technology”.
According to the complaint, government agencies have submitted to the court (NGT) that bio-methanation and refuse-derived fuel (RDF) units do not exist at the plant while the latter claims that these two units do exist.This was done to get validation for claiming carbon credits, the complaint says, adding that about 2,000 tonnes of unsegregated waste are being incinerated every day at the Okhla plant.
“The clean development mechanism (CDM) monitoring report (2012-2015) is completely erroneous in stating that the plant is using RDF technology,” it says. RDF is produced from combustible components of municipal solid waste—the waste is shredded, dried and baled and then combusted to produce electricity.
Rakesh Aggarwal, executive director of the plant, said the technology used was not RDF but some sort of segregation done before incinerating waste. “We get about 2.5 lakh certified emission reductions (CERs) annually and have sold some in the past too,” he said.
The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) officials, however, had informed NGT earlier that the plant was incinerating mixed waste including, plastics. Inspections conducted by CPCB and DPCC had revealed that the plant was emitting carcinogens such as dioxins and furans, and not meeting the particulate matter standard either. “They have lied to UNFCCC about the technology used by the plant and about the toxic emissions,” said Ranjit Devraj, a resident.
Soumya Dutta of the Indian People’s Science Group, who has been working on CDM, said: “The problem is that the claims of these projects are not validated properly by the nodal agency, MoEF. One of the requirements a project has to meet to be entitled to CER is sustainable development of the community. Is that happening?
“Even though the CER prices have crashed, projects still get a substantial amount of money from the mechanism. There are many such examples of violations. In MP, a polluting thermal plant was receiving CERs for having super critical boiler technology.”
People in Okhla have strongly objected to the existence of the polluting plant in their locality. “Hundreds are at risk because of the large amount fly ash generated by the plant. It also causes severe air pollution,” Devraj added.