THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) has launched a major effort to map the solid waste being generated in the city. With this, a detailed waste mapping and assessment study has been started which will help strengthen solid waste management.
Waste generated from 90 households in nine wards in the city was collected, segregated and characterised. The data collected will now be used to extrapolate it to the complete population of the city and will be used to analyse the waste generation and ascertain how much of the waste is being managed in a controlled manner. The focus is also on mapping the waste flows and assessing potential plastic leakages from waste management systems into the environment. This will throw light into the amount of waste being generated in the city, point out intervention areas and thereby aid in addressing the waste so generated.
The UN-Habitat, an international programme of the United Nations, is undertaking the study with the city corporation, and NGO Sahridhaya. UN-Habitat India officials, Swati Singh Sambyal, waste management specialist Jogesh Arora, programme specialist and Sreekumar S, waste management consultant, led the work along with volunteers of Sahridhaya.
The project ‘Waste Wise Cities: Tackling Plastic Waste in the Environment’ is funded by the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) and has been launched in six cities- two cities each in Ethiopia, India, and Kenya. In India, the pilot projects were launched in Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru.
The focus is on mapping the waste flows and assessing the potential plastic leakage. “The two cities have been chosen as they are coastal cities and if plastic leakage is left unmanaged then it will get into the ocean and affect marine life. All the figures that we have are from studies done long back and the amount of waste generated is speculated data. Once we get the correct data, projects for solid waste management can be structured,” said Sreekumar S, waste management consultant of UN-Habitat for corporation.
The waste was collected from wards based on income levels. Wards such as Pattom, Kuravankonam and Vazhuthacaud are placed in the high-income category, Mudavanmugal, Kamaleshwaram and Vallakkadavu are in middle-income category while Kachani, Poonthura and Kudappanakunnu were placed in the low-income category. The waste so collected has been analysed. “Only by knowing how much of waste is generated and how much is being recovered by the corporation can we understand the gap in the process and thereby plan suitable interventions,” says Sreekumar.