Puducherry:
Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had recently said that if there were a prize for filth, India would probably get it. And Puducherry could well be the country's winning entry!
Every day, 350 tons of waste generated by a population of just 7 lakh people is heaped at the Union Territory's unofficial dumpsite, right next to its model township - Auroville.
And if that isn't bad enough, an overloaded sewage treatment plant runs through the same site. There's also a drinking water bottling plant hardly a kilometre away from rotting garbage, sewage, pigs and flies.
This has been the 'temporary' dump yard of the Puducherry municipality at Karuvadikuppam for 40 years. The garbage decomposes anaerobically and produces a large quantity of methane, forcing residents to bear the brunt of smouldering waste.
"Due to the mixed garbage, plastic is also burning. My house is hardly 4 km from here. And I just can't sit in my living room," says Angad Vohra, a resident of Auroville.
"There have been many cases of typhoid. And that's linked to the fly menace here," says Dr Lucas Dengel, Coordinator of the Eco-Pro.
The highest ground within the Union Territory is also the site of a sewage treatment plant; sewage is pumped up here at great cost. The plant itself is overloaded and often untreated sewage flows into the site.
Fed up with such routine promises, residents have roped in a fertilizer company to take away the compost on a no fee, no rent basis.