Kicking Up A Stink

India has been dragging its feet over abating odour pollution. Does it lack in infrastructure, or will?

- Isha Bajpai

THE RESIDENTS of Noida, a city in the national capital region, are on a warpath for over a month now. At the heart of the protest is a 10-hectare plot in sector 123, where the Noida Authority had recently started dumping garbage from across the district. Residents say they are facing tough days because of the unbearable stench from the dumpyard. Though the authority has stopped dumping in the last week of June following protests, the respite may not last long as the city master plan demarcates the site for a waste-to-energy plant and a landfill will be part of it. “It seems, we no longer have the right to fresh air,” says Neeraj Prakash, an information-technology professional who lives in a colony in front of the landfill.

While complaints against stench from landfills and waste-to-energy plants manage to draw government’s attention—52 such protests have erupted across 16 states in the past three years, says the State of India’s Environment in Figures 2018—the misery of those who endure malodour from oil refineries, fish markets, slaughter houses, distilleries, pharmaceuticals, biomedical and hazardous waste disposal sites and pesticide plants remains unnoticed.

The World Health Organization recognises odour as a pollution and says it affects the quality of life and social well-being of individuals. Though the effects vary from person to person, stench can generally cause vomiting, headache, nausea, insomnia, stress, anxiety, frustration and discomfort, particularly among the elderly. “Odour is a sign that unhealthy chemicals surround us,” says K K Aggarwal, former president of the Indian Medical Association, Delhi. But tackling odour pollution is the last thing on the government’s mind, or so it seems.