THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Corporation is racing towards March 31 deadline to complete the first phase of its decentralized waste disposal project in 50-plus wards under the flagship My City Beautiful City programme, perhaps correcting the historic blunder of centralizing all the waste at Vilappilsala. Vilappilsala had festered since 2000 when Corporation sought to convince itself that the panacea for the city’s burgeoning garbage heap was carting all the rubbish and dumping it on the plant at Vilappilsala.
Locals whimpered and later protested in rallies but were suppressed with the might of the State. The Corporation realized its mistake. First it stopped dumping garbage in wayside monstrosities of big metallic coffins, which were hauled to Vilappil. After several trials, pipe compost offered some respite but it had aeration problems. Those days were marked by regular slanging matches between the then Mayor, Ms K Chandrika and former Urban Affairs Minister Manjalamkuzhi Ali over who should bear the brunt of the city refuse.
The latest answer is the kitchen bin. A dedicated team of health inspectors and other hygiene and sanitation staff runs the project, which started in 2014. By now, some 5,000 kitchen bins, the most popular at-source waste disposal kits, have been set up even in tiny apartments. It’s been given for free though the service entails a monthly user fee of Rs 200. By November, the Corporation plans to cover 80 percent of households in 15 selected wards in the city’s core areas, where there would be a regular arrangement even to collect dry waste.
The rest of the 20 percent dwellings will have access to Thumboormuzhy aerobic bins and each household will soon have an ID card to use the facility. My City Beautiful City programme green volunteers will visit each household once a week, check the functioning and ensure adequate quantity of inoculum is available. The volunteer would also visit each household once a month to collect plastic waste and once in three months to collect e-waste.
The last study on the Corporation’s waste was undertaken in 2006, based on which the latest scientific projection is daily 300 tonnes waste, 70 percent of which is biodegradable. Says health inspector Anoop Roy, part of My City project: “We have stabilized on waste management. The achievement of the past one and a half years is the social awareness about the need for segregating waste at the point of origin. We are sure now there will be no more a waste pile crisis”.
