THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Amayizhanchan canal has turned into an eyesore with waste clogging it posing a serious health hazard to hundreds of people living near it. The trumpeted decentralised waste management initiative by the city corporation has gone for a toss with the illegal waste haulers dumping it in water bodies and canals.
All the efforts taken by the civic body to clean up the canal have gone futile with the authorities unable to bring under control the illegal sanitation workers operating from Rajaji Nagar colony. An official said that the majority of the door-to-door waste collectors under Kudumbashree Mission were from Rajaji Nagar.
“Even after the civic body stopped collecting waste from households, these ex-sanitation workers continued the job by collecting huge sums from the residents. They collect and bring all this waste and dump it in the canal,” said the official.
Recently, the health officials under the civic body held a meeting with the representatives of the Rajaji Nagar colony to put an end to this. “During the previous council, the civic body had installed CCTV cameras along the canal stretch to stop illegal dumping. A monitoring system was set up at the secretariat health office. All the CCTVs have gone defunct,” said former Thampanoor councillor Harikumar.
An official of the health wing said that once the monsoon sets in, the city will face severe flooding. “Recently, we hauled out eight truckloads of waste from the canal but waste continues to accumulate. Once the rainy season comes, all these garbage will clog the drains and canals causing severe flooding,” said the official.
Though the district administration had launched ‘Operation King Cobra’ to book violators dumping waste in public places, there is no respite from the practice.
“The collector has invoked section 133 of CrPC to prevent dumping of garbage in public places. A team has been constituted comprising police and health officials. We will step up the surveillance,” said the official.
