SAMBALPUR: With increasing load on the wealth centres across the city, the Sambalpur Municipal Corporation (SMC) has taken up major upgradation work in all the centres for capacity improvement and to provide a better working environment to the women staff in the waste management field.
Currently, there are nine wealth centres functional in the city for disposal of waste. The wealth centres have two major components including the Micro Composting Centres (MCC) and Material Recovery Facilities (MRF). While the biodegradable wastes are sent to the MCC for processing them into compost, the non-biodegradable waste is brought to the MRF where they are further segregated and disposed through proper channels. The wealth centres are run and managed by the Women Self Help Groups (WSHGs), where at least 11 women work in each centre, apart from the supervisory staff.
At present, SMC is handling around 120 TPD of waste every day of which more than 50 per cent is biodegradable waste. While work on two more centres at Hirakud and Themra are underway, the functional centres as well as the staff are overwhelmed with heavy garbage load considering which some major renovation and upgradation works were started at all the wealth centres around a month ago.
Enforcement officer of SMC, Subhankar Mohanty said, the revamping of the nine centres in the city are close to completion now. “Among major upgrade, we are installing drying beds keeping in view the problem faced during monsoon and weigh bridges. Also the number of fans, flycatcher, and ceiling fans will also be increased at all the wealth centres,” he said, adding, for the convenience of women staff, a lounge and dining space besides a small park on the premises are being developed.