Kochi: Despite the instruction given by Minister A.C Moideen to accelerate collection and removal of huge quantity of inorganic waste from flooded houses, the pro-cess has not yet been initiated. The open spaces and roadsides are dotted with huge piles of was-te, especially in rural areas.
Though the minister instructed to temporarily dump inorganic was-te from panchayats and municipalities at the Kochi Corporation’s Br-ahmapuram yard, the garbage transportation is yet to begin.
“We have asked panchayat authorities to co-llect and segregate garb-age from flooded houses and shops. Once, they collect and sort it, we will transport it to the corporation’s Brahma-puram plant,” said Siju Thomas, district coordinator of Suchitwa Mis-sion.
However, Mayor Soum-ini Jain told DC that the road within the Brah-mapuram yard was da-maged in heavy rains and the civic body is struggling to transport plastic waste from the city areas.
As the uncertainty co-ntinues over disposal of waste, the worst affected municipalities like Elo-or, Kalamassery and Aluva have identified alternative methods for dumping garbage piles.
The Eloor municipal authorities are disposing truck loads of beds, cushions, papers, books, plastic covers and clo-thes in the vacant plot owned by the FACT.
“The Kalamassery mu-nicipality has started disposing waste at the HMT owned site. We cannot keep the garbage piles on roadsides for long considering the chances for outbreak of infectious diseases,” said Jessy Peter, municipal chairperson.
It will be a himalayan task for Suchitwa Mis-sion, Haritha Kerala Mission and the Clean Kerala Company, the agencies responsible for waste disposal as huge quantities of destroyed furniture, upholstery, beds, clothes and plastic materials have to be removed.
“In Eloor municipality, as many as 7000 families were evacuated and 5000 houses were partially or fully submerged. Garb-age covered with thick layer of muck from all these houses have to be removed. Similar is the situation in other local bodies,” said Purushan Eloor, activist of Periyar Malineekarana Virudha Samithi.
