BRAHMAPURAM:For a newcomer to the city, the Brahmapuram waste treatment plant would be the only place here they can identify without the help of any GPS device. The reason? The foul smell trailing towards the site, several meters from the Plant.
Sprawling across 100 acres of land, the Brahmapuram plant continues to be a nightmare for Kochi residents owing to the unbearable stench emitted from the Plant. The lorries laden with garbage heading towards the plant also add to the woes of the residents.
However, the atmosphere inside the premises of the Plant is ironically different as it is devoid of any foul smell. Instead you will be surprised to witness agriculture activities inside the plant.
The four acres of unused land has been fully utilised for agriculture purposes. Environ Green, who runs the Brahmapuram plant on contract basis has set up a paddy field in two acres of land. The remaining space has been utilised to plant over 20,000 plantain trees.
‘’ Interestingly, the workers at the company are distributing the yield to the destitute homes in the city and the process has been going on the last three years. We started farming just to kill spare time after working at the Plant.
We started paddy farming after converting the unused space here. As the low-cost seed rice called Jaya was used, the expense was low and the yield we received exceeded our expectations,” said Byju.
In the first year itself, the harvest yielded around 800 kg of rice, which was distributed to the destitute homes in the city. “Apart from recycling the waste generated in the city, this is also part of a social commitment. We are arriving at the next harvest, which will take place within a month,” states Byju.
The manure produced from the garbage waste is mainly using at the paddy field and in total, the workers have spent only around Rs 10,000 for the paddy cultivation.
“ We have also been able to generate 500 bananas which we are also distributing to the destitute homes. We have also started some small-scale vegetable cultivation. If all goes per plan, the farming activities will be further expanded,” said Razzak, supervisor, Environ Green.