THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With two more weeks left for the monsoon season to hit the state, the city corporation is on a spree to complete cleaning activities before the onset of the rain. About 80 per cent of drainage cleaning within the corporation's 100 wards has been completed. The local body is expecting scheduled works to be finished before May 30.
The civic body had set aside an amount of Rs 1 crore for the cleaning drive, of which Rs 1 lakh was allotted to each ward. Anti-mosquito and source reduction activities are some of the other tasks carried out as part of the monsoon drive. As part of the source reduction activities, Kudumbashree members are conducting a door-to-door visit at each residence to spread awareness on the after-effects on health due to stagnant water.
As part of the drive, the local body has also observed the dry day, where it had conducted mosquito reduction activities including draining egg shells, tyres, sunshades, bottles and coconut shells.
Amayizhanjan Canal
A special drive was carried out by the civic body to clear the wastes accumulated at the Amayizhanjan canal which blocked the flow of the water. In a two-day mass cleaning drive, the corporation has cleared as many as 53 loads of wastes from the canal which includes plastic wastes.
In order to ensure the wastes are not being dumped again and to carry out the rest of the cleaning, the corporation has assigned around 100 sanitation staffs. The removal of wastes is expected to be completed by Tuesday after which the rest of the task will be handed over to the Irrigation Department, said Prakash S, corporation health supervisor.
To put a permanent end to the dumping of garbages in the canal, the Tourism Minister has asked the corporation to identify an area around the canal and to establish aerobic bins and RRC (resource recovery centre) units. In each ward, the councillor who is also the chairman of the Ward Health Sanitation Committee is responsible to carry out the task.