Thiruvananthapuram: If the campaign the city corporation’s is planning to launch soon with the help of all political parties is taken in to its logical end, then the state capital will be a waste-free city in a phased manner in two years. As many as 51 of the city’s 100 wards have already been declared ‘Suchitwa’ wards (clean wards) after they successfully took up the ‘Ente Nagaram, Sundara Nagaram’ campaign in 2014 where 60 per cent houses adapted to source-level waste management.
As the next step, the Corporation will choose 13 wards in which source-level waste management systems along with aerobic bins will be set up to make them waste-free by October 2. Residents’ Associations, NGOs and people’s organisations will be made a part of the programme, according to press release issued by mayor V.K. Prasanth after an all-party meeting in the city on Saturday.
The corporation will deny permission to waste management agencies to collect waste from households in chosen wards so that every house shall start source-level waste management. The agencies will be linked to maintenance of kitchen bins. Every ward will have portable aerobic bins to raise awareness about its usage. Aerobic bins will deal with only waste generated in public spaces. Three resource recovery centres, in addition to the one in Muttathara, will be set up to store plastic and glass waste.
Apart from the mayor, deputy mayor Rakhi Ravikumar , councillors K. Sreekumar, D. Anilkumar, Vettukad Solomon, Vanchiyoor P. Babu, Palayam Rajan, Johnson Joseph, R. Satheeshkumar, Priya Biju, Peter Solomon, V.R. Sini and A. .J Krishnaveni participated in the all-party meeting. The plan seem promising but what is important is its implementation, said BJP councillor Valiyavila Girikumar. “Everyone was in agreement with the plan today,” he said. “The Corporation now needs to monitor, implement and follow up the campaign well. It was because there was no proper follow-up that pipe compost units went out of order.”
