Metro India News | Hyderabad 

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has raised serious red flags over the operations of Hyderabad’s Waste-to-Energy (WTE) incineration plant and Dundigal WTE. In its latest submission to the National Green Tribunal, the CPCB revealed alarming levels of heavy metal contamination in the plant’s fly ash, along with violations of its Consent to Operate (CTO) conditions.

According to the CPCB report, cadmium levels in the Jawaharnagar fly ash stand at 858.65 mg/kg, over 1,073 times higher compared to the World Health Organization (WHO) permissible limits of 0.8 mg/kg. Chromium levels were recorded at 230.31mg/kg, above WHO’s safe thresholds. Similarly, in Dundigal WTE the cadmium levels were 956.69 mg/kg which is over 1,195 times higher than the WHO permissible limits. 

Ruchith Asha Kamal of Climate Front Hyderabad lamented that air, water, and soil were getting polluted thereby threatening lakhs of residents' health and worsening climate change. Notably, WTEs have a pollution index of 97.6, the highest among all industries now placed in the so-called Blue Category, making this re-categorisation a direct threat to environmental safety and public health. 

Community groups and environmental forums jointly demand that the Telangana Pollution Control Board immediately suspend Hyderabad WTE operations until safe disposal norms are met. They also demand that the board must also levy substantial environmental compensation on the operators and issue a show-cause notice for the blatant violations.

Sandeep Raj of Navodaya Welfare Society, a resident welfare association near the plant complained that the WTE plant and the adjoining dumping yard have caused severe health problems for those living in Jawahar Nagar and added that most of the residents belong to socially and economically marginalized communities who cannot even afford basic medical diagnosis.

Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran of the Centre for Financial Accountability pointed that when the government officials from the Greater Chennai Corporation visited the WTE plant .the officials mentioned the plant as a “zero waste” plant and said that all the bottom ash and flyash are used by cement industries and brick manufacturers. She described it as a “case of clear fraud by the company.”