VIJAYAWADA: As part of promoting the Swachh Vijayawada initiative, the public health department of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has started distributing different colour bins for segregating dry and wet waste generated from households. Municipal Corporation Commissioner J Nivas on Wednesday distributed the bins to residents in Rellis Colony and told them how to generate energy from wastes by maintaining vermi-compost yards in their respective divisions.
Speaking on the occasion, Nivas admitted that civic body is lagging behind in segregation of garbage in the city. In this regard, instructions have been given to sanitation staff to collect garbage from the households only if they are segregated into wet and dry waste. He called upon the residents to adopt the practice of segregating wastes as the urea generated from the wastes fetches `10 per kg. He asked them to utilise the revenue for executing development activities in their locality.
The civic body chief informed that the city generates 550 metric tonnes of garbage per day and it has become a herculean task for the sanitation staff to separate dry and wet waste during door-to-door garbage collection from households. Of the total 550 metric tonnes of garbage, only 10 per cent of the waste is plastic while wet waste constitutes 60 per cent.
City Mayor Koneru Sreedhar called upon the residential welfare associations to cooperate with the VMC and voluntarily procure the dustbins as they are very cost-effective. The civic body will distribute dustbins to the public even in the slum areas across the city. Another major problem haunting the city is open urination at public places. To overcome this, instructions have been given to officials to arrange mobile toilets at major locations of the city. Fines will be imposed if anyone is found violating the norms, he said. VMC health officer Ramakoteswara Rao and sanitary inspectors were also present.