KANNIYAKUMARI: Citing the years-long accumulation of legacy waste and the frequent fires that break out at the Valampurivilai dump yard, several residents of Nagercoil municipal corporation have de manded the local body relocate it to the outskirts.
Situated at the Beach road Junction in Valampurivilai near Irulappapuram, the dump yard borders several neighbourhoods, schools, healthcare facilities and other commercial establishments. every day, thousands of people pass by the road near the dump yard, in which lies a total of 1,22,400 metric tonnes of legacy waste.
The dump yard, used when Nagercoil was a municipality, still remains at a central place in the city, years after Nagercoil became a municipal corporation, said R S Rajan, a Congress state func tionary from the area. Frequent fires at the dump yard pollute the air in the neighbourhood, besides worsening the area's hygiene conditions, he urged the authorities to relocate it. G G Iyswariya, a resident, said while smoke would completely engulf the area during fire accidents, the rains exacer bate the situation as the air would reek of foul odour.
She added the pollution has deterio rated the health of her pet dogs. Several residents alleged they had to undergo suffoca tion for prolonged periods, as the fires sometimes take days to be extinguished. Further, they complained of stray dog menace and birds dropping pieces of garbage picked up from the yard.
Speaking to TNIE, Nagercoil municipal corporation officials said work is underway to clear the garbage through a bio-mining process at an estimate of Rs 10.07 crore, under the Swachh Bharat Scheme, at the fertilizer godown -- the term officially used to denote the dump yard.
The officials said that out of the total legacy waste, 13,021 metric tonnes have been segregated. Using four bio-mining machines, 1,080 tonnes would be segregated daily and the waste would be sent out by May this year, adding that water pipe lines and CCTV cameras were installed to prevent fire accidents.
Further, the officials said that 110 tonnes of garbage is collected in the city daily, of which composted garbage was converted into fertilizer at micro-com posting centres and the decomposed garbage would be collected at a material recovery facility to be set up at Rs 5.1 crore in six locations.